Heart Of A Demon
by Akurei-Shinzo
Summary: Hi! This is my Yu-gi-oh!/Akurei-Shinzo Crossover Fanfic. The YGO gang meets up with several demons and have to battle the evils of a world that should have never been connected with Earth! Can the YGO gang seal the gates before it's too late?
1. The Gates Have Opened!

Writers Note: I don't own Yu-gi-oh! But I do own the characters from the Akurei Shinzo 

series! In case you all are wondering, the characters that are not from 

Yu-gi-oh! Belong to me! J So ask permission before trying to use my 

characters! I have a friend that owns several working voodoo dolls! J 

Don't believe me?! Then send me several strands of your hair! (evil grin)

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Heart of a Demon

Chapter 1: The Gates Have Opened!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~ ~ Dream ~ ~ ~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Yugi was in world of darkness, in front of him was a gigantic gate. Then a silver dragon appeared in front of him.

"The gates have opened… Are you ready for your destiny?" it said. It faded and the gates busted open! The wind was blowing from all directions and Yugi could hardly stand up. Then a black portal beneath him opened and he fell into the darkness below!

When he awoke he noticed a figure was standing before him and it held out a hand…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The next morning Yugi, Joey, Tristan, and Tea were walking down the street when the silver dragon appeared.

"The Gates of Chaos, Fury, and Eternity have opened!" it chanted. A dark vortex opened beneath them and the dark shadows swallowed them!

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Yugi groaned and looked around, he was no longer on the street. In fact, he was no longer in the city anymore! He was in a dark forest, his friends were just waking up.

"Ow! Where are we?!" asked Joey.

"Beats me" said Yugi. Just then they heard a yelp. Tristan had stepped on a fox's tail and now it was running around in circles. It finally stopped when it ran into a tree.

"Are you alive?" asked Tristan as he poked the fox. Upon looking closer at the fox it turned out it had three tails! Then it turned into a guy, he'd look normal if it hadn't been for the fox ears and tail. (Zeero is probably the most popular character in my Akurei Shinzo Series)

"What are you humans doing here? And why do you all look so weird?" he questioned.

"You should talk fox-boy!" said Joey.

"Well anyway, who stepped on my tail!? Don't you know a fox-demon's pride is his tail?"

"You're a demon!?" screamed Joey as he picked up two sticks and made them into a cross. "Away you demon!:

"What's that for?" asked Zeero as he mimicked Joey with the sticks.

"Ack! It doesn't work!" cried Joey.

"Zeero!" called a voice. A girl with long black hair that was in a ponytail stepped out of the shadows. "There you are! I've been looking… who are they?"

"Katana! I was just minding my own business and sleeping when one of them stepped on my tail! So that's all I know about them. Ow!" said Zeero. Katana had hit him over the head with a frying pan! (Where'd she get that thing anyways?!)

"What was that for!" asked Zeero.

"For wondering off! I think we should get them out of here. I know a lot of demons who would love to have them for dinner… Where's Shiro anyway?"

"How should I know!?" shouted Zeero who was still rubbing his head from where Katana had hit him! Just then a gigantic three-headed dog jumped out of the trees!

"It's Cerberus! Oh great, just when I don't have my arrows!" shouted Katana. (Katana is a demon-huntress who is feared for her arrows)

"Nice three-headed, big, black, scary, fire-breathing doggy…uh-oh!" muttered Zeero. Cerberus began to growl and show it's fangs. Zeero turned chibi, ran around in circles, and started yelling, "I want my mommy! I want my blankie! I want my bottle of SAKE!" (Zeero has a huge drinking problem)

"Don't just stay there! Run away already!" shouted Katana. "We have to find Shiro! We'll need his help if we want to beat this mutt! Especially since I don't have my arrows and Zeero is too much of a coward to fight at the moment!"

"So what if I'm a coward!? I'm proud of it… well, not really…"said Zeero.

The gang started to run away when dark pillars of fire sprouted from the ground, cutting them off from their escape route.

"Hey kid! Look out!" shouted Zeero.

Cerberus reared up and prepared for it's fire blast attack and it aimed it at Yugi! As the blast headed for Yugi a dark figure stepped in front of him…

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Writer's Note- For all you people who know the main character in Akurei Shinzo 1 it's the one and only Shiro! Well if you're going to review my fanfic don't tell anyone about Shiro and his past! Keep on reading and I won't use the voodoo dolls on you all! (evil grin)


	2. Amber Eyes & Demon’s Blood

Okay I'm back! History Fair has kept me very busy! So here's the second chapter!

//…// = Yami talking to Yugi  
  
/…/ = Yugi talking to Yami  
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Chapter 2: Amber Eyes & Demon's Blood

As Cerberus's fire blast headed straight for Yugi a mysterious stranger cut through the fire blast as if it were paper! As the smoke cleared Yugi got a good look at the stranger. His hair was white, and he had a pair of cat ears and a tail! When he turned around the stranger's eyes was a very particular color, they were amber.

"Hey Shiro! What took you so long!?" asked the kitsune.

"Sorry I'm late, did I miss anything?" said Shiro.

"Not much, only a big, fire-breathing doggy tearing up the scenery!"

"Fire-breathing huh? Sounds like fun." (Shiro is amazingly calm, even though Cerberus was a good 100 something feet taller than him!) "Katana, here!" He tossed Katana's arrows towards her. "It's hard to fight a dog-demon without weapons!"

"Thanks Shiro!" said Katana. Cerberus unleashed another fireball, this time it caught poor Zeero's tail on fire! (Poor kitsune!)

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiiiieeeeeeeeeeeeeee!" he screamed. Once again he turned chibi and ran in circles. And wouldn't you know, he hit the same tree again!

"That's pathetic Zeero, running into the same tree twice!" shouted Shiro.

" Hey! How'd you know I hit this tree before!?"

"Heh, there's still a dent in it stupid!"

"Huh?" Zeero turns around to find a very big dent in the tree. "Now that's just mean Shiro!"

"Umm in case anyone has forgotten… Cerberus is still here!" yells Joey. Cerberus let out a big roar that blew smoke down on them. 

As everyone was coughing Shiro just stood there with a cocky look in his face. "That dog needs a breath mint, don't you agree?"

"Got a plan? Cause I would love to hear it!"" asked Zeero. Shiro stepped forward. "What are you doing?"

"Cerberus is the three-headed dog demon, it you cut of one of his heads it'll just grow a new one. So I'm going to strike it at the heart!"

"Uh, explanation?" Shiro jumped into the air and apparently disappeared. "Hey! Wait for me! I want to run away too!" Cerberus was preparing for another attack when Shiro appeared in the air above him. Using his Demon Gloves (Shiro wears these white gloves that can make 4 claws out of it each) he formed the claws and sliced the demon right through the middle. Cerberus let out a howl of pain before vaporizing.

"Wow! That was cool!" said Tristan. Shiro approach the group and for the first time looked at Yugi and the others straight in the eyes. Something about those amber eyes of his made one feel like he could read your thoughts.

"Let's get back to the village before dark, Akio and Hoshi probably are worried about us." he said quietly.

"Katana! You're back! And .. you've brought company…" said Akio (Akio is an elf that has a huge crush on Katana). His green eyes surveying the new comers.

"You're back! Who're they?" asked Hoshi. The little tow-tailed Koneko (It means kitten) spirit hopped onto Shiro's head and curled up.

"Come to think of it we've never introduced ourselves." said Zeero. 

After the introductions (Yami was also introduced so he's materialized from the puzzle, he scared Zeero real bad when he did that) Joey asked, "So, where are we anyways?"

"You're on the planet Sonraku. What did you think?" said Akio.

"Sonraku? Is this another video game?" asked Tristan.

"What's a video game?" asked a very confused Zeero.

"We're from the planet Earth." said Tea.

"What's Earth?" asked Hoshi.

"Earth is the planet on the other side of our galaxy. I've studied that in astronomy with my mother." said Shiro.

"On the other side of the galaxy?!" cried Joey. "How are we suppose to get home?!"

"Hey Shiro, can you ask your mother to help us get back home?" asked Tea. There was a change in the amber eyes, they seemed to be on fire. He got up and went to the door.

"I'm afraid I can't"

"Why not?" asked Joey.

"She can't help you because she has died a long time ago okay!" yelled the demon. With that he went out, slamming the door behind him.

"Now you've done." said Akio.

"What's wrong?" asked Yugi

"Shiro's mom was killed by demons…"

"Why would a demon kill another demon?"

"Shiro's mom was a human. His dad was a demon."

"That means…" said Yami.

"Yes, Shiro is half-demon. It's sad too, not many half-demons are around here. Demons hate you for your human-like eyes and humans hate you for your demon's blood." sighed Zeero.

"I don't think we should tell you the whole story, Shiro wouldn't appreciate it." said Hoshi. "Don't worry, Shiro's not the kind who stays mad for long."

"Well, if you're tired there's a couple of spare rooms in the next building. You can go there. I don't think any demons are here except for Zeero, and he's too much of a scardy-cat to fight anyways." said Katana.

"What was that?" asked Zeero.

"Nothing, just talking to myself!" answered Katana smugly.

As the Yu-gi-oh gang headed for the building. Joey shivered, "Did you hear that?"

"Hear what?" asked Yami. Just then a spider-like mutant jumped out of the trees with its sword drawn.

"Chaos Claw!" yells Shiro as he slices the thing in half. "I knew there was something fishy going on!" Turning to face the group he says, "I think I had better escort you the rest of the way."

"Don't worry, demons won't attack you in here. There were spell put on these buildings to prevent any demons from getting inside." Just then they heard a huge splash. "Oh great, that was a Zeero-fell-onto-the-SAKE-barrel-again-splash! I guess I better get over there if I want to stop him from bouncing all over the place. Good-night." with that he walked away.

At night Yugi couldn't sleep, one- Joey and Tristan were snoring real loudly and secondly- he had a lot of thoughts on his mind. One of them was about Shiro. He seemed like a nice guy, but at the other building… Shiro seemed to become a different person.

/Yami, are you asleep?/

//I was, what is it?//

/What do you think of Shiro, I mean… his personality?/

//…I think there is more to him that meets the eye//

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A.K- There's chapter 2!

Zen- Hey! I'm not in the fanfic!

A.K.- Zen, you can't be here! I haven't even posted Akurei Shinzo 1 on the website and 

you are in number 2~

Ryu- Zen's right! When can we be in the fanfic!?

A.K- When I finish this fanfic, Akurei Shinzo 1, the Akurei Shinzo Movie, and Forbidden 

Magic!

Zen- That's going to take a millennia!

A.K- Ya know.. I could erase you from all the stories!

Zen- Well too many people like me, so there! If you erase me you'll get killed by my 

fans!!

Shiro- Please R&R! (In the background A.K, Zen, and Ryu are arguing and beating each 

other up)

Zeero- Does anyone have SAKE?


	3. Yari the Spider Demon Returns

Hello! How do you like my other chapters so far? Well here's chapter 3!

//…// = Yami talking to Yugi  
  
/…/ = Yugi talking to Yami  


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Chapter 3: Yari the Spider Demon Returns

Since Shiro and his friends agreed to help Yugi and the others return to earth, they began traveling across the Forest of Darkness in search of a portal to earth.

"I hate the forest!" said Zeero.

"But you're a fox-demon! Don't foxes live in forests?" asked Joey.

"Yeah, but when me and Shiro first met a crazy spider-demon almost added us into her collection! And besides we foxes live in woods not forests, there's a big difference!"

"What's the difference?" asked Tristan.

"The woods actually have flowers in them!" said Zeero while everyone did an anime-style fall.

As soon as Shiro got up he noticed a stand of silver string in front of him. He grabbed it and received a cut from the piece of string. "Zeero, Yari did have a web made out of the same materials as swords right?

"Yeah, why?" Before Shiro could answer that question a bunch of this web-like stuff shot out at him and bound him to a tree!

"Well, it's been a while!" said a creepy woman that just came out of the shadows. Suddenly webs appeared out of nowhere and several stands of it wrapped Zeero into a cocoon! Now the poor fox was hanging on the web unable to move! "Remember me?"

"Shiro do something!! Help!" screamed Zeero.

"Um, I'm a little tied up if you hadn't noticed!" yelled Shiro struggling to get loose. Katana aimed her arrow and shot at the demon, unfortunately Zeero happened to be in the way.

"Ahhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" yelped Zeero as the arrow nearly missed him, glazing his face. "I do wish you'd watch where you're aiming that!" Then the web shot out and tied Katana up onto a tree. It did the same thing with Akio when he tried to free her.

Hoshi was chewing at Shiro's bounds trying to set him free, meanwhile Shiro was desperately looking around for Yari's source of power because once you destroy it the demon will be destroyed.

"Hey guys! Cut that string right there!" he shouted.

"Which one?" asked Tea.

"That one!" yelled Shiro trying to point out the near invisible string near where he was tied down.

"Ow!" cried Hoshi as Yari knocked her off Shiro. The rest of the gang was looking around for the 'string', but every string looked like the other. Shiro growled and began to struggle with his bounds again.

"It's useless to try to escape! Give up and admit defeat!" said Yari.

"Not…. a… chance!" yells Shiro as he breaks out of his bounds. As soon as he was free he didn't waste a second, he slashed the string and Yari began to vanish.

"No, how did you know that that string was the one that supported my life-energy?"

"It was quite simple, the webs that were invisible turned visible after you had me pinned down, but it's easy to notice that that string wasn't a visible as the others. It was like you didn't want us to find it." he explained.

Yari was destroyed, but the gang wasn't so happy.

"That's weird, I'm sure I had already defeated her before!" said Shiro.

"Yeah! I wonder how she was brought back?" said Zeero.

The question remained with them even after they had exited the forest.

Next Time on Heart of a Demon: With a spell Shiro gets turned into a human for 24 hours. What can happen in 24 hours? A lot of things! A lot of demons came to take advantage of Shiro's loss of power. Not only that, but the Kageneko Tribe, a tribe of cat-demons after Shiro, are going to come to trap Shiro with another shadow-demon (a very scary one to)! So can the others help Shiro from being captured for 24 hours? With powerful demons from the Kageneko Tribe Shiro's going to need a lot of help if he's lost all of his demon's power! Chapter 4: The Dark-Eyed Shiro

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A.K- Well there's the preview for Chapter 4! See ya soon!

Everyone- Please R&R!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


	4. Amber Eyes No More!

Okay here's chapter 4! I've just thought of a better chapter name! Enjoy!J 

//…// = Yami talking to Yugi  
  
/…/ = Yugi talking to Yami  


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Chapter 4: Amber Eyes No More

"So Hoshi, do you really have to leave?" asked Katana.

"Yeah, there's some problems back home. I'll come back soon! Bye! I hope you all will find a way home!" said Hoshi as she dashed off into the bushes. Not long after the 2-tail Koneko Spirit had vanished they heard a crash and they all turned around to see Zeero holding a bottle of SAKE and the bartender chasing after him. With a hit with a mallet the bartender got the SAKE away from the fox, whose eyes had turned into x's and had a huge bump growing out of his head.

"Darn that kitsune! That's the 100th time he's tried to steal that bottle!" grumbled the bartender as he strolled of with the SAKE. Zeero got up whining.

"Darn! No one knows how to share!" he winced.

"You're always getting into trouble Zeero!" said Shiro shaking his head.

It was getting dark when they were all heading back to the hotel they were staying at. On the way they met a fortune-teller, fortune-tellers in Sonraku are unlike the ones on Earth, they can actually look into the past, present, and the future. But some may be demons in disguise.

"Well my friends, I see you're looking for something. A gate to Earth by any chance?" asked the old woman. The hood of her cloak covered her face so they couldn't see her eyes (the way to tell demon, humans, and spirits apart are by the eyes in this world).

"Uh yeah, so grandma, can you tell us where the portal is?" asked Joey. The old woman grinned.

"Ah, but don't you what me to tell you something more useful?"

"Like what?" asked Shiro, his eyes narrowing. He didn't like this, something was very wrong here.

"I think you'll find this very interesting, especially you half-breed! The Kageneko Tribe is back and this time you shall not escape!" With that smoke exploded from the crystal ball. As the smoke rose no one noticed Shiro being pulled into the darkness.

Shiro managed to pull himself loose and turned around to face his captor. It was the cat-demon, Kuro, his half-brother.

"Well, it's been a while Shiro. Helping out humans again?" asked the demon smirking.

"Alright Kuro, why are you here?!"

"You out of all people should know, but I just wanted to show you how pathetic a human can be." The fortune-teller came out of the shadows behind Kuro. "What better way to show you then to turn you into one!" A beam of darkness shot out at Shiro and engulfed in it's shadows. "Don't worry, it'll only be for 24 hours." said Kuro as he and the fortune-teller faded away into the shadows.

===============================================================

"Shiro! Where are you?!" called Katana. After the smoke had cleared they had notice he had vanished and had been searching for him for a few hours now.

"What?!" called Shiro's voice from the dark alleyway.

"There you are! Where were you?" asked Akio.

"None of your business…" said Shiro sounding as though he was very upset about something.

"Come on man, get out of there!" said Joey.

"You can forget it!"

"Come on." said Akio as he tried to drag Shiro out. To his surprise Shiro's power was a lot weaker than what he remembered so it didn't take long before he….

"Huh!?" screamed everyone in surprise. Shiro had defiantly changed. For one his hair had turned jet black and his ears and tail were gone!

"Shiro! What happened!? You're tail and ears are gone!" said Zeero as he ran around Shiro surveying his new look.

"You're lucky my demon-strength is gone too!" growled Shiro as he slammed Zeero onto the ground. Then he opened his eyes for the first time and…

"Shiro! You're eyes!" cried Katana. His eyes were no longer the mysterious amber color they once were. They were now dark brown, almost black!

"First you lose your powers and you ears and tail. Now your eyes have changed, but that means…" said Akio.

"You're 100% human!" cried the kitsune who had just got up. "Shiro, what's going on?!"

"It's nothing, just a little spell, it'll wear off in 24 hours…" he muttered.

"24 hours! Do you know how many demons will take advantage of this?! Not to mention you'll be a huge target for the Kagenekos!" screeched Zeero. "And if you don't have your demon powers how are you going to protect yourself!? Come to think of it who'll protect me?! ….AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! We're all going to die!" Zeero began to run around in circles as Shiro sat down on a crate as though nothing had happened.

"Shiro, aren't you at all worried about what's going to happen to you? You don't have any powers or weapons to defend yourself anymore!" screamed Akio, but Shiro continued sitting and looking calm. "You're hopeless!" Shiro looked up straight into Akio's eyes.

"Look, just because I'm 100% human doesn't mean I'm 100% helpless!" he snapped. "Besides, it'll wear off by midnight tomorrow!" As if this had been planned a bunch of shadow demons appeared.

"Aye! We're goners!" winced Zeero as he turned into his fox form and coward behind Yugi (this kitsune is afraid of everything isn't he). Shiro got off the crate and picked up a metal pole which happened to be nearby.

"You're not going to try to fight them are you?" asked Tea.

"Why not?" asked Shiro not taking his eyes off the demons.

"Are you crazy?" screamed Tristan.

"You don't have you're demon powers! You're going to get crushed!" screeched Joey.

/Yami, Shiro's going to get himself killed!/

//I don't think so, with a look like that in his eyes you can tell that he's more deadly then he seems…//

/I'm still not so sure./

Yami materialized besides Yugi as the shadows began to close in. Then the shadows jumped on them. Surprisingly Shiro managed to easily fend them off with the pole. It was very obvious who the shadows were after, but Shiro managed to keep them off him.

"Mind Crush!" yelled Yami as he destroyed a bunch of the shadow. Katana was shooting about 10 arrows per second now, Akio was trying to get a bunch of the shadows off him with his sword, and Zeero was running around trying to get a shadow demon of his tails (he's still in his demon form)!

"Shiro, behind you!" yelled Yugi, a shadow had creped up behind him. Shiro brought the pole up hitting the demon in the … (yes, not pretty, but it stopped the demon).

"Alright, I'm going to summon the Red Eyes Black Dragon!" yelled Joey as he pulled out the card, nothing happened. (sweat drop) "Hey! Oh yeah, we're not in Kaiba's video game."

"I can't take this any longer! Slashing Fury!" cried Zeero as he transformed out of his fox form. Slashing Fury was probably his best attack when he wasn't in his demon form. He managed to take out the rest of the demons by slicing them into many pieces, one would think he was a paper shredder (Yay Zeero J )!

Just when everything seemed to calm down a dark hand reached out and grabbed Shiro by the neck, ramming him into the wall.

"I'm very surprised you've managed to get this far… Well, this will soon stop!" said the demon whose hand was now chocking Shiro. Shiro growled as he tried to get the hand off of his neck, but it was no use, without his demon powers he couldn't get loose.

"Hey you! Let him go!" yelled Zeero as he tried to get to Shiro. The demon unleashed a powerful energy blast that sent the poor kitsune flying and he landed right on top of Akio.

"Excuse me…but would you mind…getting your fat carcass off me!?" yelled Akio. Suddenly a tornado came out of nowhere and covered up both Shiro and the other demon.

_A wind demon, just my luck!_ thought Shiro as he squirmed around trying to get loose.

"Easy Kaze, we'll need this one alive." said an all-to-familiar voice. Shiro turned his head to see his half-brother standing behind Kaze, smirking. "Do you enjoy being human, Shiro?" Shiro's eyes narrowed as he tried to get Kaze's hand off him.

"But, Kuro, I was really hoping to get to kill something today!" objected Kaze.

"There's a bunch of humans out there from the planet Earth, you can destroy them!"

"Leave them out of this Kuro!" snarled Shiro as he was beginning to loose consciousness, this lack of oxygen was beginning to take its toll!

"What if I choose not to? You can't do anything about it. You can't even save yourself now, so what hope do you have of saving them!" said Kuro. Then an arrow came out of the outside of the tornado and sliced off Kaze's hand from the rest of his arm. Shiro fell to the ground into a heap. As the tornado died down Katana and the others came into view.

"They don't call me the best archer for nothing you know!" said Katana. Since Kaze was a demon he was able to grow out another arm.

"Winds of Steel!" he yelled as several blades made out of wind came at there way. That was very interesting to watch, Joey, Tristan, Akio, and Zeero were all hopping up and down like a bunch of Mexican Jumping Beans just to avoid the attacks!

"Slashing Fury!" yelled Zeero as he sliced at the blades. He managed to deflect some blades, but some managed to get through. One managed to do some serious damage to his right shoulder. He yelped in pain as he dropped to the ground, with his arm in this condition there is no way he could continue fighting. Akio was having a hard time too, the blades managed to slice him up real good, he dropped to the ground next to Zeero, unable to fight any longer. Yami managed to form a force field around them to block the remaining blades.

"Is this all you're made of? Well then you have no chance of defeating me!" laughed Kaze. He summoned more of those blades out at them.

"I don't know how much longer I can keep this up!" said Yami who was loosing a lot of energy by the minute. Shiro managed to stand up, but he was still a little groggy from the lack of air. He was still very vulnerable to any attack so Kaze decided that he'll just kill them all one by one for fun!

"Shiro! Look out!" yelled Yugi. Shiro looked up and saw a bunch of energy blades heading towards him. He would have dodged every one of them, except one managed to cut him at the stomach. The wound seemed to be very deep. Shiro covered the wound with his hand, but the blood seeped through and then his entire hand was covered in blood! He gritted his teeth in pain.

"Mind Crush!" yelled Yami. Yami managed to distracted Kaze for a moment as they all backed into an abandoned warehouse. Shiro fell into unconsciousness as they shut the doors. Akio quickly put a spell to prevent Kaze from getting in.

"I think these spells should keep them out for a few hours." he panted. Shiro was still unconscious, with a wound like that a human can easily die!

"Shiro, hang on…" whispered Katana. In the background Akio is beating up Zeero for making fun of him. Remember, he has a huge crush on Katana, but she doesn't really like him and he thinks there is something going on between Shiro and her (for all you other readers who don't know my anime Katana likes Shiro, but he doesn't feel the same to her). Zeero squirmed away and turned back into a fox, he was now cowering behind Joey. It was now 9:00 am, only 15 hours to go…

Everyone soon fell asleep, they had been chased by demons so many times that it was very hard to get a good night (or morning) rest. When they woke up it was only 10 more minutes to midnight (boy, they are hard core sleepers). Shiro began to stir.

"They're…coming from…the roof…" he muttered. Everyone was staring in surprise for a moment and then the roof began to crumble. Kaze had grown to the size of Cerberus and had torn the roof, not to mention the entire building, off its foundation! Before Zeero or Akio (their wounds have healed due to the demon or spiritual blood they had) could make a move Kaze had them tied up with chains.

"Ack! Katana do something!" squealed Zeero, it was very hard to breath since the chain was now chocking him and Akio. Katana had only move one inch when a chain wrapped itself around her neck.

"Alright Kaze, drop them." 

It seems Shiro had recovered for he was now standing up looking as though he had never been hurt at all! Kaze dropped them, but then the chains wrapped themselves around Shiro! Then Kaze hoisted Shiro up so they could see eye to eye.

"Shiro, are you crazy?!" yelled Zeero (being a demon he recovers real fast).

"Looks like your out of tricks half-breed!" laughed Kaze.

"Heh, I suggest you look at the time…" chuckled Shiro. Out of moonlight a spiritual lion came out and flew straight at Shiro fusing with him, his slanted eyes exhibited an amber-glow before the light consumed him.

"It's midnight! But that means…" said Kaze.

"That's right, the spell has worn out. Are you ready to face me at full power!?" said Shiro. He broke out of the chains and was sort of floating in the air, kinda like what happens in those other anime shows. "Let's see you try to stop this attack! Chaotic Oblivion!" He shot a beam at Kaze, it was so powerful it even burned up the nearby buildings! Since Kaze had destroyed everyone in the village Shiro did not hold back his power. After the dust had settled Shiro was seen standing calmly as Kaze's figure was evaporating (I don't understand how he can stay that calm).

"Nice to have you back!" said Zeero.

Next Time on Heart of a Demon: Hi this is Zeero, next time we're going to set sail on a ship and bleah (threw up)! I can't stand the sea! Fox demons aren't known for their swimming abilities. Well everything would have gone okay if a Sea Serpent Demon hadn't shown up, attacking it physically won't do any good and magic isn't going to help either! Looks like it's time for me to show my best demon attack! Chapter 5: A Fox-Demon's Best Attack. See ya around!

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A.K- Yeah! I'm finally done!

Zen- Can I be in the fanfic now?

A.K- NO.

Zen- Now?

A.K- No!

Zen- Now?

A.K- No!

Zen- Now?

A.K- No!

Zen- Now?

A.K- No!

Zen- Now?

A.K- No!

Zen- Now?

A.K- No!

Zen- Now?

A.K- No!

Zen- Now?

A.K- No!

Zen- Now?

A.K- No!

Zen- Now?

A.K- No!

Zen- Now?

A.K- No!

Zen- Now?

A.K- No!

Zen- Now?

A.K- No!

Zen- Now?

A.K- No!

Zen- Now?

A.K- No!

Zen- Now?

A.K- No!

Zen- Now?

A.K- Okay!

Zen- When do I come in?

A.K- This is still part of the fanfic you know!

Zen- Darn!

Shiro- Please R&R!

Zeero- Watch me defeat the demon with my…(get hit on the head with a frying pan)

Katana- Don't give it away!

Akio- You're absolutely right Katana!

Hoshi- I'm still not back yet am I?

A.K- Nope, but you'll come back soon.

Zeero- Can I have some SAKE?

A.K- NO!

Zeero- Please?

A.K- NO!

Zeero- Please?

A.K- NO!

Zeero- Please?

A.K- NO!

Zeero- Please?

A.K- NO!

Zeero- Please?

A.K- NO!

Zeero- Please?

A.K- NO!

Zeero- Please?

A.K- NO!

Zeero- Please?

A.K- NO!

Zeero- Please?

A.K- NO!

Zeero- Please?

A.K- Argh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


	5. The Ocean Snake vs The Soul Stealer

Hi! I'm back! Here's chapter 5! Yes I've changed the title for the chapter again!

//…// = Yami talking to Yugi  
  
/…/ = Yugi talking to Yami  


===============================================================

===============================================================

Chapter 5: The Ocean Snake vs. The Soul Stealer

The gang was getting on a ship headed for a country on the other side of the ocean. The ship was like one of those old wooden ones from Earth.

"I hope you know how to swim…" said Shiro.

"What? You mean this ship isn't safe?!" screeched Joey.

"It's the safest one around… But it can still fall apart very easily if we run into a storm…" said Shiro as he headed for the railing. Zeero was hanging over the railing and the poor kitsune's eyes seemed to become those squiggly lines. "So a little sea sick?" Zeero nodded and…

"Bleagh!"

"Zeero!"

"Sorry, but… fox-demon's can't stand the sea. And I'm one of the worst swimmers of the clan! So… bleagh!"

"Zeero, we haven't even left the dock!"

"I know, but going up and down and… oh no…"

"Zeero if you're starting to feel sick maybe you should lie down…" Zeero rushed towards the life boat and hid underneath the blanket that covered the small thing. "Just don't throw up in there!"

"Do you think we'll find a way home on that other country?" asked Yugi.

"Maybe… Sonraku has tons of gateways and portals to other worlds. Some can only be activated with a password or key, while others need to be activated with… I don't know. There's more portals here than there are planets! So I don't know anything really. But, the planet Earth never was suppose to have a portal to this world, that's all I know. Strange how you all got here. If any demons knew then they'll be over there taking over within minutes!"

"Do you know anything about a silver dragon?"

"Perhaps…" The amber eyes flashed with interest. "Why?"

"Well, before we got here a dragon appeared. It opened a portal and we just found ourselves here."

"You saw Chaos!"

"Chaos?"

"Chaos is the dragon of balance, it's a dragon created by the fusion of Fury and Eternity. Fury and Eternity are also dragons with great power. It is said that anyone who gains their magic will have power beyond power, knowledge beyond knowledge. Many have tried to gain that magic, but when they get to one of the dragons they have often lost their minds by the extreme power that that one dragon has. Only one person who can tame both dragons can possess the power of Chaos. It is said that it has to be someone with a particular type of blood."

"Why would anyone want to gain that much power?"

"I can't speak for others, but me personally, I would like to have that power to destroy the Queen of Demons!"

"You're seeking the dragons too?! Why would you want to destroy the Queen of Demons?"

"Because she was the one who murdered my family…" said Shiro through gritted teeth.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

They had been on the ship for several hours now, Zeero still hadn't come out from hiding, and everyone was getting extremely bored!

"Watch out mates, the Sea Serpent Demon might show up at any moment now…" said the captain.

"The what?" asked Tristan in surprise.

"It wouldn't be that serpent of water over there would it?" asked Tea. Everyone turned their heads in that direction and there it was. The demon dove underwater and came up, just glazing the ship! Katana shot an arrow at it, but it went straight through it!

"What's going on?!" she exclaimed.

"Argh, no magic nor weapon can take down that beast, make sure ya keep out of the way when it turns into ice!" shouted the captain. The serpent began to crystallize and it transformed into an ice serpent! Out of its mouth shot a torn of sharp icicles! One of then nearly cut Joey on the shoulder.

"Chaos Claw!" shouted Shiro, the attack cut the thing in half.

"Uh, is it just me, or is the thing putting itself together?" wined Tea. It was true, the demon had resembled itself and it wasn't happy!

"Zeero! Get out of there!" yelled Shiro. He reached into the boat to grab Zeero. He pulled out Kuroneko form Trigun. "Sorry about that cat." He threw the cat back in and it yowled in distaste. He grabbed Zeero and dragged him out. "Zeero, you have to help us out now!"

"But, I told you! I can't swim!" wined the kitsune. He transformed into his demon form and went slinking off into the cabin. Shiro grabbed him by the tail (all 3 of them) and hauled him out.

"Come on you little coward! If you can't defeat this thing you're never drinking SAKE again!" growled Shiro.

"Never drink SAKE again?!" Zeero's ear's sprung up and he clambered onto the top of the cabin to face the serpent.

"Careful! Magic and weapons don't work on this thing!" The serpent and turned back into ice and was shooting the icicles and Zeero now. Zeero jumped onto the icicles making his way toward the demon. Soon he ran so fast that he became a blur of ice blue.

"Soul Stealer!" Zeero's jaws grasped the demon's right eye and pulled it out, blood spewing everywhere! Then he jumped off the demon onto a nearby small iceberg, with a white glowing sphere in his mouth. The demon wasn't moving, with that Zeero crushed the sphere in his mouth and the serpent shattered. (Soul Stealer- a technique fox demons specialize in, it removes the victims soul sphere/soul and then they crush the sphere to destroy the victim)

"Hey Zeero! You said you can't swim right?" asked Shiro.

  
"Yeah?"

"Then get off the ice, it's melting!" Zeero looked at the ice and…

"Yipe!" squealed the fox, he leaped up into the air about 60 feet and landed in Shiro's arms. "Thanks pal!" Shiro sighed and released the cargo. "OW!"

"Look! There's the island!" yelled Yugi. Sure enough the island was there. Zeero was once again hanging over the railing.

"Uh oh…" he moaned, "Bleagh!"

"OH!"

"Yuck!"

"Gross!"

"Awww!"

"Sick!"

"Zeero!"

Shiro was nearby chuckling at Zeero who seemed to be seasick again. A shadow passed over the ship.

"What the…" Shiro looked up and saw a floating temple made out of skeletons!

===============================================================

Next Time on Heart of a Demon: Shiro here, well we finally see land and then this weird temple comes floating out way. It's the Kokkaku Temple, it is said that those who died within the temple's walls their skeletons will become part of its structure! What! What are these skeleton warriors? Every time I cut them in half they keep on putting themselves back together! What are they? And what do they want? Chapter 6: The Temple of Lost Souls. See ya!

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A.K- There's Chapter 5

Zeero- Where's the SAKE?

Zen- Forget the SAKE! What about me!? I'm still not in the fanfic!

Shiro- Please R&R!


	6. The Temple of Lost Souls

Here's Chapter 6! Sorry I can't update during school days!

//…// = Yami talking to Yugi  
  
/…/ = Yugi talking to Yami  


===============================================================

Chapter 6: The Temple of Lost Souls

"What's that weirdo temple doing up there in the sky!?" asked Joey. The temple was made out of skeletons.

"That be the Kokkaku Temple, it is said that those who died within the temple's walls their skeletons will become part of its structure! Careful mates!" shouted the captain from the cabin.

"This isn't good!" whined Zeero. (Right now he's too scared to be seasick!) Just then a bunch of skeleton like warriors jumped from the floating temple onto the ship.

"Chaos Claw!" attacked Shiro. He sliced them into pieces.

"Umm… Shiro… I think they are…um…putting themselves back together…again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" stuttered Zeero. The skeletons were resembling themselves and didn't even have a scratch on them!

"This is bad!" said Tea. The skeletons then fused together and became this blob with a skeleton. The face was a skull and it didn't look at all friendly!

"Alright let's try this again! Chaos Claw!" he tried to slash the thing across the face, but before he even touched it, the skull grabbed his arm with its teeth! "Hey!" Before Shiro said anything else a dark shadow came out of the skull's mouth and pulled him into the beast!

"Shiro!" everyone yelled as he was pulling into the thing. Zeero took out his sword.

"Spit him out!" he yelled as he brought the sword down. It never reached the thing for its arms prevented the attack from hitting its skull. "Now that's no fair!" The thing opened its mouth once more and consumed Zeero!

"I think now it a good time to run!" said Akio as he headed for the lifeboat. It was no longer there, the captain had used it to get away while leaving them alone to fight the blob. "That's just great!" The blob advanced and soon swallowed all of them whole! 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Yugi woke up to find himself in a cage completely constructed of bones, pushing himself up he looked around. His friends were beside him and were beginning to wake up.

"No, I don't want to go to school today mommy! I want to stay home and bake cookies with you!" moaned Zeero obviously still a little drowsy.

"Ow, my head." moaned Akio.

"Where are we?" asked Shiro.

"You're with me." said the demon who had just come out of the shadows. "My name is Kariudo. My, I seem to have a good catch today. The infamous half-breed and humans from the planet Earth…"

"Hey, how'd you know-" asked Joey.

"I have read your minds and memories while you were all unconscious. This planet of yours interests me, and you all actually saw the legendary dragon Chaos, very interesting isn't it?" said Kariudo cutting off Joey.

"What do you want?" asked Tristan.

"Nothing much, just to find the gateway to Earth and then take it over! Once I have done that I shall not stop there, I shall take over each planet and solar system one by one until all of the universe bows down to me! Even the Demon Lord and Demon Queen will tremble at my name!"

"Well it's not going to happen!" growled Shiro.

"Oh yes it is, Shiro. I recently found out why the Kagenekos are hunting you down. You're after the powers of Chaos aren't you? They plan to take the power from you once you have obtained it am I right?" Shiro didn't answer, he just glared at Kariudo. "So I'll make a deal with you, if you do gain the power of Chaos then you can assist me in taking over the universe, 40% of it shall belong to you. What do you say?"

"I have meet a lot of other demons that want my help if I gain the powers of Chaos. And I know this is a fact, they don't share power!" Just as soon as that statement was finished a white dragon appeared above the group. Its emerald green eyes glowed and a portal of light opened below the gang in the cell.

"What's going on?" asked Yugi and the light swallowed everyone in the cell. Soon the cell that they were all in became empty! They were no longer in Sonraku anymore.

===============================================================

Next Time on Heart of a Demon: This is Yugi here, me, Joey, Tristan, and Tea were all transported into this weird world of Sonraku. There we meet Shiro the Half-Demon, Zeero the Fox-Demon, Katana the Demon-Huntress, Akio the Elf, and Hoshi the Koneko spirit, but Hoshi soon left to take care of a problem in her tribe. Now we're transported back to Earth only our new friends have come along as well. Luckily they can turn into a human form in this world otherwise we'd have a hard time explaining… What? Demons in our world? Looks like the Gate to Earth has been discovered by a group of evil demons. How will we be able to stand up to an army of them? Find out in Chapter 7: The Invasion of Demons! See ya soon!"

===============================================================

A.S.- Whew! That's over with. I've been using the wrong initials for a while haven't I? Oh well.

Zen- Zeero you are very pathetic in battle!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

A.S- Don't you two ever stop?

(Silence)

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Shiro- Since everyone here has a headache I'll say it. Please R&R!


	7. The Demon Invasion

Here's Chapter 7! Enjoy!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

A.K- Cut it out already!

//…// = Yami talking to Yugi  
  
/…/ = Yugi talking to Yami  


===============================================================

Chapter 7: The Demon Invasion

/What happened? Where are we?/

//Well we're not in Sonraku anymore…//

Yugi and the others appeared to have returned to Earth!

"Alright! Now things are back to normal!" said Joey.

"Aye! Those are scary demons!" yell what Yugi and the others hoped was not Zeero. It was, it seemed that the cars passing by had scared the little kitsune silly!

"Actually there're cars." said Tristan.

"What's a car?" asked Akio. Yugi and company turned to find Akio, Katana, and Shiro standing behind them.

"Uh oh…" muttered Yugi. This was bad, they were back on Earth, but it seems that the Sonraku gang had accidentally followed them. "We better get back to my place before someone see us." The snuck back into the game shop without anyone spotting them. The Sonraku gang wasn't accustom to cars and stoplights so you can imagine how much they freaked out Zeero.

In the game shop they had to figure out how to keep the demons from being see. Katana was easy to hide since she was human, Akio's only problem was his elven ears, but Shiro and Zeero were the ones they had to worry about, with ears and tails like that a person would have to be very stupid to ignore those.

"Any plans?" asked Tristan. They had tried to hide their ears and tails, but were running out of ideas fast. Zeero couldn't stand trying on another hat so he was now cowering under the bed refusing to come out. Akio was getting annoyed and Shiro had refused to try anything on.

"Just one, I can turn myself into my human-form. Nut since you all wouldn't listen I couldn't explain anything." said Shiro. He then transformed into the dark hair version of himself, but this time his eyes remained amber.

"How'd you do that?" asked Joey.

"When we passed through the gate to Earth this was just a new ability we picked up." said Zeero coming out of the bed. Instead of having fox ears he had human ears and his tail had vanished. "So, anyone have SAKE around here?"

"Uh no, but here." said Joey handing him a can of coke.

"What's this?" asked Zeero.

"It's coke, just try it." He probably shouldn't have given Zeero caffeine.

"Yahoo!" Zeero was now bouncing around so fast one could mistake him for a basket ball. Katana put a stop to this by whacking Zeero with a mallet.

"That's just great! Now you've got him hooked!" muttered Katana.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"I can't get this problem!" moaned Yugi trying to finish his algebra homework. After all that time in Sonraku only a few hours had passed on Earth. But he still had a lot of homework left and it was all due tomorrow! He crumpled the sheet of paper and threw it behind his back. Shiro held out the trashcan so that it landed in. Then Kuroneko popped out of the can.

"Meow!"

"Now I know I've seen you before!" said Shiro. With another meow Kuroneko disappeared under the trash and vanished leaving a very confused Shiro. Katana was spending the night at Tea's, Zeero went with Joey hoping to get more caffeine, and Akio followed Tristan. Shiro looked out at the sky, for a world so different from his own there were a few things still the same, like the bright moon and the little stars that dotted the sky.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

After school the next day Yugi and the others rushed out the door to see what the Sonraku group was up to. Zeero was sleeping in a tree, Katana was reading, Akio was practicing his techniques with a wooden sword, and Shiro was looking around at the scenery.

"(Yawn) 'Bout time you all came back! We're getting real bored!" yawned the kitsune.

"So, what are we suppose to do now?" asked Akio. The gang wasn't use to the city life, the cars freaked out Zeero, Katana couldn't stand the noises, Akio didn't like the attitudes that a lot of people possessed, and Shiro didn't enjoy the land, too many buildings and too little trees. "We can't stay here!"

"I guess we have to look for a way home." said Shiro.

"Where do we begin?" asked Tea.

"I think we should look at night, that way people won't be so suspicious of us snooping around." suggested Shiro.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

The night wasn't such a good idea, the lights freaked Zeero out a lot more than the cars!

"Shiro, I don't see anything that resembles the gate!" complained Akio.

"Keep looking!" said Shiro. Then a rustling in the bushes caught his attention. "What the…" A preying-mantas-demon appeared.

"AH! Mother!" yelled Zeero. Then a ton of other demons of all kinds, sizes, and shapes began to appear out of nowhere! The people pf Domino City were under attack by Sonraku demons. The police tried to fight them off, but the weapons they possessed did not work against them. Then Shiro and the others changed back into their original forms.

"Hey! Change back, we can't let the police see you!" yelled Joey.

"Sorry, but we have to help!" said Shiro. He charged at the preying-mantas. It was standing over a police officer about to devour him, the man covered his eyes for the piercing pain was about to come. It never did, he peeked open one eye and saw a young boy with a pair of cat-like ears and a tail fending off the demon. "Don't just sit there! Get out!" The man stumbled and ran out of the way as Shiro sliced the thing in half.

Things weren't going well for the next few minutes too many demons were attacking them from all side. Shiro and the others already had a lot of wounds and cuts on them. Grinning evilly the demons advanced.

"Everyone get down!" yelled Shiro. No one hesitated to obey that order, as soon as everyone was one the ground Shiro used his own blood to create sharp spikes and defeated the enemy with the spikes by shooting out the spikes at them. He collapsed as soon as the enemy had vanished.

"Shiro, are you alright?" asked Yugi.

"Don't worry, I'll be fine in a few seconds. I have demon's blood remember, it speeds up the healing process."

"The Blood of Chaos attack, I've heard of it! Very powerful and can often kill the user if they'd lost too much blood." said Zeero.

"Alright, we need an explanation!" said the policeman. There was a crowd of people surrounding them now.

"Well, I guess I'm not needed anymore!" said Shiro who had suddenly recovered. He jumped onto the nearest building and speed away. Katana and Akio had also mysteriously vanished and now everyone's gaze was set on Zeero.

"Mother I didn't do it!" he cried as he turned into a fox and speed away. While the crowd stared after the fox Yugi and company slowly backed away and disappeared into the alleyway.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"That's just perfect! Now the police are snooping around for us! There's no way we can find the portal like this!" whined Zeero. Since last night the police had been searching for the demons. Lucky they were in their human forms when the police searched the card shop. "How are we ever going to get home!" Just then the door opened giving Zeero a nice greeting with the wall. Seto Kaiba and Mai were at the door.

"Alright, someone start talking!" barked Kaiba.

"Who're they?" asked Shiro.

"The guy's Kaiba and that over there's Mai." said Tristan.

"We saw you guys on the news, they also mentioned something about demons. What is going on?!" asked Mai. Shiro, Akio, and Katana turned their heads as those the walls had suddenly become interesting.

"I'm okay…" muttered Zeero as he crawled out of the door. Opps, he was in his demon form. Kaiba smacked him on the head with his suitcase. "Ow! What'd you do that for!?" asked the kit rubbing his head.

"You all have some explaining to do!" said Kaiba.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"So let me get this straight, you're from this world called Sonraku. There there's demons, monsters, spirits, humans, and some other stuff. What are you doing on Earth then!?" asked Mai, she and Kaiba were having a hard time swallowing the fact that there was a demon, a half-demon, an elf, and a demon-huntress on their planet.

"We got here by accident, now we have to go back to Sonraku before more demons start to invade the Earth." said Shiro.

"Why do demons want to come to Earth anyways?" asked Kaiba.

"… I don't really know." said Shiro (he was crossing his fingers behind his back).

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

They took Kaiba's limo around to see if they could find any sign of a portal back to Sonraku. It took them a few hours to convince Zeero the car wasn't a demon ready to eat him alive.

"That's the alleyway where we saw the Chaos Dragon." said Joey.

"That'll be a good place to look for a portal." said Shiro.

They got out and started examining the area. Zeero opened the lid of the trashcan and Kuroneko popped out. Then when Zeero closed the lid and opened it again the cat was gone. After that Zeero started to pock his head around in the trashcans looking for the cat.

"Zeero, turn into your demon form and see if you can pick up some kind of scent." said Katana. Zeero did, the three-tailed fox snuffed around for a while, since he wasn't keeping an eye on where he was going he ran smack into a wall. When he rubbed his nose everything around them became dark. A long black dragon appeared before them, it looked exactly like the white dragon, Eternity, except it was black and it had a pair of red, slanted, glowing eyes.

"It's Fury." muttered Shiro in awe. The dragon let out a powerful roar and then the group vanished from the alleyway.

"Ahhhhhhhhhh!" they all yelled as they fell down the darkness of the portal.

"You must be the one to close the gate…" said a soft voice. It seemed to come from everywhere in the shadows. Soon the darkness swallowed them completely and they remembered no more of what happened in the darkness except for the voice that said, "If you fail, then all is lost…"

===============================================================

Next time on Heart of a Demon: Hi, this is Hoshi. So the gang crash lands in a forest and a group a of mean looking cat-spirits show up. Lucky they're from my tribe so they won't hurt anyone that I say is a friend. So when they come into the Koneko tribe's village the leader offers to teach them how to summon the monsters from their cards. But it seems that after the had mastered the technique Kariudo reappears, and this time he wants someone to be sacrificed for a ritual to revive the evil cat-demon, Saber-Tora. I hope I'm not the one needed to be sacrificed! Chapter 8: Summonings and Sacrifices! See ya soon!

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A.S- Yeah! I'm done! For now.

Shiro- Who's the one who's going to be sacrificed?

A.S- That's for me to know!

Zen- Zeero, I still say you're a baka!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are to!

A.S- Not this again! (Tapes their mouths shut.)

Katana- Can we hurry up and finish the next chapter?

Akio- Yeah!

Hoshi- I'm back!

Shiro- Please R&R!


	8. Summonings and Sacrifices

Hey I'm back! Now for chapter 8! Opps! (Untapped Zen and Zeero's mouths).

Zen- Were you trying to kill us!

Zeero- I need Air! I need Oxygen! I need SAKE (and some caffeine if it's possible)!

//…// = Yami talking to Yugi  
  
/…/ = Yugi talking to Yami  


===============================================================

Chapter 8: Summonings and Sacrifices

The portal opened above a forest and then the group noticed that they didn't have any ground below them.

"Yah!" they yelled as they plummeted down into the mass of trees below. Shiro and Katana managed to land on their feet, Zeero and Akio managed to get a hold on tree branches so they didn't fall down so hard, Yugi and the others landed with a huge thump.

"Ow! It think I broke something…" moaned Joey. They got up and the Sonraku group didn't even have a scratch on them, but Zeero did fall out of the tree. Then red eyes came from the shadows. The figures came out of the darkness, they were cat spirits.

"Spirits are suppose to be good right?" asked Mai.

"No, some spirits are evil as some demons are good. We demons just have a bad reputation. We like to keep things simple here." said Shiro.

"Shiro, Zeero, Katana, Akio! What are you all doing here?" asked a familiar voice. Then they saw Hoshi running up to them.

"Hoshi, long time no see!" said Katana as she picked up the ball-o-fluff in here arms.

"It's okay, they're my friends." said Hoshi to the other cats. The cats looked at each other and then their eyes lost their red and turned into whatever color they were.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"This is my hometown, I hope you like it!" said Hoshi.

"It's beautiful!" said Tea. The surrounding area was like a meadow with several willow trees in the center. The cats had little huts in which they lived in. A lot of kittens ran up to them and purred since they were not able to talk yet.

They entered the large tent where Hoshi's father, the Koneko Tribe's leader, Kureta, was studying some special summonings.

"Dad, here are my friends I told you about!"

"Ah yes," said the cat surveying the group. "Didn't you say four humans from another world came to this planet? I see six of them." Hoshi just then noticed Kaiba and Mai. "Uh… You've brought more friends here?"

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"Let me get this straight, you're saying our worlds use to be connected?"

"Yes Yami, the planet Earth and Sonraku were once connected. But with evil demons being resurrected by human souls the Forbidden Trinity Dragons, Chaos, Fury, and Eternity sealed away the portal to Earth. As soon as the world was sealed away demons virtually forgot that that planet ever existed. I was one of the spirits who've helped the Egyptians learn how to summon Duel Monsters." said Kureta.

"You what?" exclaimed Joey.

"If you want I can teach you, after all it's been… I don't know… a millennia since I've last taught summonings." Everyone does an anime-style faint.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"I'm tired!" complained Tristan. It took them seven hours just to learn how to summon monsters. Then it took four more hours to learn the usage of traps and magic cards in Sonraku. Everyone was either sitting or leaning against something. Summonings is a test of strength and will for the mind, soul, and body. Shiro and the rest of the gang didn't have to learn summonings, one they chose not to and second, Akio dragged Zeero and Shiro off into the woods to practice their fighting techniques.

"If you think you're tired you haven't seen the real spiritual summonings. Those can kill a person whose mind or soul is not strong enough." commented Kureta. Shiro was leaning against the doorframe as Akio was yelling in pain as Hoshi was healing his wounds. When Akio was facing Shiro he got careless and ran into a tree and fell into the river. Shiro and to fish out a wet, angry elf from the water. Then his ear twitched and his eyes narrowed, he looked at the sky and dark clouds were approaching. _Something's coming…_he thought. He was right, a chariot made out of bones came. It was followed by a whole army of demons! And on the chariot drawn with three-eyed horses was…

"It's Kariudo!" yelled Shiro. Sure enough the Skeleton Demon was coming towards the Koneko Tribe's village! Everyone rushed out of the tent to face the demons.

"What are you doing here, Kariudo!?" demanded Kureta.

"Nothing really Kureta. But my demons here are short in their food supply of blood, so I hope you wouldn't mind if they…" before the demon finished the army began their assault on the village.

"I activate the Dark Hole Magic Card!" summoned Yugi. The demons were sucked into the hole.

"Very impressive, but you've missed several." smirked Kariudo. Shadow demons became to sprout out of the ground like daisies. Shiro, Akio, and Zeero's weapons did no damage to them.

"What the…" stammered Shiro and the shadows surrounded him and devoured him.

"Shiro!" yelled Zeero as he tried to pull his friend from the shadows. He was too late.

"We've got what we've came for! Let's go!" yelled Kariudo as the shadows covered him making them disappear.

"Why'd they take Shiro!?" asked Hoshi. Her father looked worried.

"I hope they're not going to perform the Soul Ritual and revive…" he started to say.

"You don't mean!" shivered Hoshi her eyes growing wide.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Shiro groaned and opened his eyes. He was chained to a wall and in front of him was a coffin.

"Well, you're awake." said Kariudo as he and the Shadow Demons emerged from the shadows.

"So what's with the coffin?" asked Shiro. Kariudo smirked. "Oh, I get it. This is suppose to be one of those soul rituals isn't it? Well you're not getting my soul!"

"But you should be honored to revive one of your ancestors, the feared Saber-Tora!" With that the ghost of the cat-demon leaped out of the coffin and bite Shiro on his right shoulder, he cried out in pain and tried to fight it off. "It's no use, he'll drain your soul until you're just an empty case!"

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"There it is!" cried Hoshi. They finally got to the entrance to the temple of skulls. They rode on the dragon to get up to the floating temple. They rushed into the temple, strangle no demons were attacking them. They reached a door and Zeero and Akio slammed into it and saw…

"Shiro!" called out Zeero. Shiro's eyes opened in surprise for a moment hearing his name called out, then his amber eyes darkened and his head slumped down.

"(evil laughter) I should thank you for calling out his name! For that second he was distracted from fighting for his soul Saber-Tora has won!" cackled Kariudo.

Then the saber-tiger demon released it's grip on Shiro and gave a roar of victory. Shiro was now a soulless puppet and Saber-Tora was free to unleash his destructive power!

===============================================================

Next time on Heart of a Demon: Shiro here! Yes I know, I've lost my soul and the gang only has five minutes to get it back before I'm permanently stuck like this! Not a very good ending. Look like I'll have to figure out some way to help because Saber-Tora is no push-over when it come to battle! Next time- Five Minutes Till Death! See ya around!

===============================================================

A.S- Sorry I didn't explain much! But I'm tire from typing and I've just come back from California!

Shiro- Please R&R!


	9. Five Minutes Till Death

A.S- I'm back! Sorry I left you all on a cliffhanger! I have school tomorrow so I won't be back for a while!

//…// = Yami talking to Yugi  
  
/…/ = Yugi talking to Yami  


===============================================================

Chapter 9: Five Minutes Till Death

Now the gang watched helplessly as Saber-Tora roared in delight at regaining his power. The demon's roar was so loud that several of the skulls in the temple had fallen of the ceiling. One hit Zeero on the head.

"Ow! Kureta, tell me there's a way to reverse this…ritual thingy," said Zeero.

"Well," he started. "The only way to restore Shiro's soul is to defeat Saber-Tora… But, there's one problem…"

"What's that?" asked Mai.

"If we don't do it by midnight Shiro's soul will permanently become Saber-Tora's and Shiro himself will be forever lost in the darkness."

"Midnight!? But that's in 5 minutes!" screamed Joey.

"I know… but if you want to help Shiro we have to defeat Saber-Tora!"

"No problem… I'll just summon…" started Kaiba.

"I almost forgot… summonings can't be used in temples."

"What!?"

"Yes I know…it cut's our chances in half…"

/Yami, can you think of anything?/

//Not yet, but that kitty over there looks like he's spotted us.//

Saber-Tora turned his attention towards the gang, then it charged at them! Katana shot an arrow at it, but the arrow bounced off of him like it was a ball!

"Now's a good time to run! Bye!" yelled Zeero. A puff of smoke was left were he stood and he ran away yelping.

"For once I agree with the coward!" said Katana as she ran off in another direction. The group scattered and Saber-Tora reared up and slammed the floor with his paws, it knocked everyone (except Zeero, a fox demon, even Zeero, can withstand attacks like those) off their feet.

While Saber-Tora was busy chasing everyone Zeero got to Shiro and cut the chains off of him. Before he fell Zeero caught him and put his arm around his shoulder.

"Hang on Shiro! Don't die now!" whispered Zeero as he tried to get his friend's body to safety (a soul can't return to it's body if it doesn't have one).

"Oh man! There's only five seconds left!" yelled Joey looking at his watch as he ran. Then they ran into a corner and Saber-Tora was blocking the only exit. It began to charge up for a powerful blast.

"It's all over… Shiro, I'm sorry…" said Zeero as he watched the demon charge up. Suddenly Shiro's vacant eyes opened, the amber color began returning to the eyes and Saber-Tora realized that Shiro was calling his soul back! Saber-Tora aimed the blast at Shiro and fired. 

"Shiro!" cried Tea as the blast hit it's target.

"Look!" yelled Tristan. Saber-Tora was dissolving and then nothing was left of him. The dust cleared and the place where Shiro and Zeero was had also vaporized.

"So, did I miss anything?" asked a familiar voice. They turned to see Shiro standing behind him and Zeero (in fox form) still a little scared and hiding behind a small rock.

"How did you… But we saw… How?" stuttered Akio. "What did you do?"

"What? I called my soul back."

"You could have done that anytime you wanted to?"

"Yeah, I just chose to do it at that time so they won't try to steal my soul again."

"I think I'm going to kill you! You scared me half to death!"

The gang watch as Akio unsuccessfully tried to catch Shiro. Zeero finally crept out from behind the rock and transformed back into the half-demon form. He sighed and sat down on the rock. It sunk down revealing a secret door to the outside. It appeared that while they were fighting the temple had landed somewhere.

"Good job Zeero, see what happens when you don't use your brain?" taunted Shiro.

"A little help here!" yelled Zeero squirming to get out of the hole the latch made when he sat on it. Laughing Shiro pulled Zeero upright and they exited the temple of skulls.

===============================================================

Next time on Heart of a Demon: Akio here, that Shiro has some nerve! Scaring us half to death, but anyway…just we had the chance to relax this scorpion demon name Midori comes along. She challenges Shiro to a fight and it appears this demon has a lot of tricks up her sleeves. I hope we can get out of this mess before it become a big problem! Next Time: Good-bye For Good? See you soon.

===============================================================

A.S.- I'm working on it! I'm working on it! Keep your end of the deal and R&R!


	10. Goodbye For Good?

A.S.-Chapter 10 at last! Yay!

//…// = Yami talking to Yugi  
  
/…/ = Yugi talking to Yami  


===============================================================

Chapter 10: Good-bye For Good?

"So, you think if we find the Forbidden Trinity Dragons they can seal up the way to Earth?" asked Yugi.

"Of course. They're the ones who've created the doors in the first place." answered Shiro.

"Finally! No demons on fire-breathing doggies! Just peace and quiet!" said Zeero.

"Think again," said a voice silky. The looked up and saw a scorpion demon. She had the tail of a scorpion and the cruel eyes of a demon.

"What do you what?" asked Shiro his eyes narrowing.

"Just a little battle, if you don't mind half-breed!" She jumped from the tree and landed near the cliff. "I think this place would be a wonderful place for you to die wouldn't you say?" Shiro remained silent. "Well, if you're not afraid let's begin!" Katana stepped forward but Shiro stopped her.

"I can take her…"

"So, you want to die one by one. I can do that as well!"

Shiro stepped forward, never taking his eyes off Midori. She smirked and continued to wag her tail back and forth.

"Shiro be careful! That cliff's over a waterfall!" yelled Zeero from behind the tree (no doubt he's hiding again).

"We have an offer for you though, join us and we'll make you into one of the most powerful soldiers of our army! Well, what do you say?"

"Is that it? Cause those are going to be your last words…"

"Is that so? Well you'll regret that answer!" She lunged at him and Shiro dodged the attack. She pulled out two sharp daggers and began to slash at him. Shiro managed to keep them off of him with the Demon Glove's help. Then she smirked and put some distance between them. She formed an energy blast with her right hand and threw it at him. As he jumped that attack the needle on her scorpion tail shoot out at him and stabbed his left shoulder. As he was trying to pull it out she charged at him and swung her tail out at him. She hit her target and sent Shiro flying off the cliff.

"Shiro!" yelled Zeero running out towards the cliff to see if his friend could have grabbed on to something to prevent himself from falling to a watery death below. Midori swung out her tail once more and knocked Zeero to the ground.

"Now who's next!?" she asked. She slowly advanced towards the group and then a sharp dagger caught her on the right shoulder. She pulled it out and the dagger melted into a puddle of blood.

"Maybe you should finish me off before going for anyone else!" said a familiar voice.

"It can't be… I knocked you off…"stuttered Midori as she turned to face…

===============================================================

A.S.- Another cliffhanger! Hope you enjoyed yourselves! Sorry it's so short, but I have a typing time limit! See ya soon and please R&R


	11. You’re Still Alive!

A.S. -Chapter 11! Enjoy!

//…// = Yami talking to Yugi  
  
/…/ = Yugi talking to Yami  


===============================================================

Chapter 11: You're Still Alive?!

"No way!" yelled Akio.

"But, but we…just saw…"stuttered Mai.

"There's no way you could be alive! I knocked you over that cliff! It means certain death for anyone! Even a demon!" screamed Midori.

"Let's just say it takes a little more than shoving me off a cliff to kill me!" said Shiro. Sure he survived the fall, but he looked a little scratched up. But surviving a fall like that would need a miracle!

"How did you survive!?" demanded Midori.

"I don't know…(everyone does an anime-style fall) But let's fight first and talk later!"

"Fine by me!" yelled Midori as she lashed out her tail at him again. This time Shiro not only managed to dodge the attack, but he also managed to cut off her tail! She wasn't very happy about that. _He's a lot faster than I last remember. But then again, they said he was no ordinary half-breed, _thought Midori. Midori pulled out two sharp blades, scorpion-demons were known for their powerful blade attacks. Plus it was said that almost nothing could break their swords.

"Chaos Claw!" shouted Shiro as he extended his claws from the gloves. He charged at Midori who placed the two blades in front of her trying to block of Shiro's attack. At first it seemed to work, but then both of the blades shattered. This surprised Midori and threw her backwards.

"You're even more pathetic than Yari, Midori," said an unfamiliar voice. They all looked up and saw a dark cat demon standing on a tree branch.

"Kemuri! You have to help me!" cried Midori.

"If you cannot defeat this half-breed you'll not be able to join our armies. You'll only remain as a tool, a weak tool. So let's see if the scorpion-demon is worthy enough for the Demon-Queen, Yoru."

Shiro's hands turned into fists when he heard the demon queen's name. While everyone was staring at Kemuri, Yugi was the only one who noticed that Shiro's claws were cutting into his flesh and drawing out blood.

"Well half-breed, if you win this match I hope you'll consider joining our forces."

"Not a chance! I'd never join the ones who've murdered my family! After I'm finished here you're next!"

"We'll see about that, farewell." With that Kemuri vanished.

Shiro returned his attention to Midori. She seemed shocked after Kemuri called her a weak tool. She gave a cry and tackled Shiro to the ground. Then four golden claws came protruding out of her back. Her body then vaporized and Shiro slowly got up, he looked like he'd seen better days. He slowly began to make his way back to the gang.

"Hey Shiro! Nice to se you're…" began Tristan. Splat! Shiro collapsed on the ground.

"Shiro!" everyone yelled. They raced towards him and Zeero pulled him to an upright sitting position.

"I don't believe it!" exclaimed Zeero.

"What?" asked Joey.

"He's asleep…" said Zeero in amazement. (Everyone else does an anime-style fall)

"This is no time to be taking naps!" yelled Kaiba.

"Wake up already!" screamed Akio. The two shook Shiro, but he wouldn't wake up.

"Well after all he's been through you can't really blame him…" said Yugi (sweat drop)

"If you can't wake him, join him!" said Zeero and then, kerplop! He fell asleep too!

===============================================================

Next Time on Heart of A Demon: This is Zeero here, yes I'm the SAKE loving fox-demon. I'm also best friends with Shiro. Though we're best friends there are still a lot of secrets hidden in that head of his. I wonder what they are… Next Time: Chapter 12- The Past Revealed! See ya soon!

===============================================================

A.S.- There's going to be a special character in chapter 12 so keep on reading.

Shiro- Zzzzzz

A.S.- Uh, Shiro… you can wake up now…

Shiro- Zzzzzz

A.S.- Since he's tired I'll say it. Please R&R and Shiro please wake up before Chapter 12!


	12. The Past Revealed!

A.S- Since everyone else is awake I can finally get some…Zzzzzz

Shiro- Here's chapter 12!

//…// = Yami talking to Yugi  
  
/…/ = Yugi talking to Yami  


===============================================================

Chapter 12: The Past Revealed!

The gang (after both Shiro and Zeero woke up from their nap) continued to walk along the path and they were growing more tired by the minute.

"Man, isn't there anything to eat around here!?" yelled Joey.

"There's gotta be some food around here…"whined Tristan.

"Would you two think of something else besides food?!" asked Mai.

"Hey Shiro, is there a village nearby?" asked Yugi.

"No." said Shiro not looking at him.

"Hey! There's a town, it's just over that forest!" yelled Zeero looking down from the hill.

"Alright! Maybe we can get some food there!" said Joey.

"Or maybe a way out of here…"muttered Kaiba.

"What are we waiting for then?! Let's go!" said Tea.

Everyone rushed off except Shiro, he continued to stare down at the village for a moment and then trudged off the opposite direction.

"Hey Shiro, you're heading in the wrong direction!" yelled Akio running up the hill again.

"There's no way I'm going there!" muttered Shiro his eyes narrowing.

"Why not?" asked Yugi.

"I'm just not going there! You all can go on without me…"

"Shiro, you've been acting real weird lately," said Katana.

"Is something wrong?" asked Hoshi looking up at him.

"No, I'm fine…just fine."

Shiro stared at the ground for a while, then he raced off and disappeared into the shadows.

/Wonder what's with him…/

//I told you that there's more to him than what meets the eye.//

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"Don't worry about Shiro, he's always running off on his own. He'll be back sooner or later." said Akio.

Just then a boy about Shiro's age jumped out of the bushed in front of Zeero. Zeero fainted from fright right away.

"What kind of joke is this?! Demons aren't suppose to faint like that!" he said sweat dropping.

"Who're you?" asked Mai.

"I'm Daichi. The warrior priest of Seiza."

"Seiza?"

"The town just over there, I'm suppose to protect the village from demons, but this is ridiculous!"

"You would have to find another demon to fight, Zeero is too much of a coward to do anything," said Akio shaking the fox so hard it woke him up.

"I sensed that there were eleven souls coming this way, what happened to your other companion?"

"Shiro, he ran off somewhere."

"Did you say, Shiro?"

"Yeah, why?"

"If you continue to head up north you'll see the village, a friend of Shiro is a friend of mine."

Before they could ask any questions Daichi had run off.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Shiro was in some sort of cherry blossom garden now. He closed his eyes as the petals flew down to him.

"Here you are! I was wondering when you would return!"

Shiro turned to see Daichi on a tree branch.

"What are you doing here, Daichi?" asked Shiro coldly.

"Is that any way to greet an old friend? Come on Shiro! It's been at least one year since we have last meet! Can't you at least say hello?"

"…"

"Come on, you should come back to our village! Things have changed since you've left…"

"You mean exiled."

"Come on, that old priest was just crazy. You can come back now!"

"I can't…"

"Why?"

"I…I…"

"Come on! Just for today! Stay for a while. If you convince the new village elder that you're not dangerous then you can stay here again."

"You know better than anyone that I can't They'll keep on hunting me until I either join them or perish!"

"But…"

"I don't want to get anyone hurt!"

Daichi jumped down from the tree and blocked Shiro from the exit.

"You're not going anywhere! Come on Shiro! Don't be so stubborn. Just for one day! That's all I ask!"

"You're not going to stop pestering me until I say yes aren't you?"

"Yeah!"

"Alright then, lead the way…"

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Joey and Tristan were shoving food down their mouths and Zeero was drinking a whole bottle of SAKE every twenty seconds. The rest of the gang were all staring at them, Zeero then started to bounce around all over the place until Katana got out the ol' trusty mallet and wham! Ahem…clamed Zeero down.

"I can't believe that Shiro's missing out on all of the free food!" said Joey stuffing more food into his mouth.

"Yeah! This stuff's great!" added Tristan.

Yugi sighed and looked out the window.

"Hey! It's that priest we met in the forest! And isn't that Shiro talking with him!?" asked Yugi.

The gang clamored over to the window and stared outside. Sure enough there was Shiro talking to the priest as though they were old friends. They snuck out of the restaurant and followed behind them.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"You're right, a lot has changed since I left…"

"So Shiro, are you glad to be home?"

"Not really…"

"Is this about what happened a year ago?"

"I still can't believe it! They killed her right in front of my eyes! My cursed eyes!"

"It's not your fault man. There was nothing you could have done…"

"I'm cursed Daichi, all because of my human and demon's blood. But the eyes, the color amber was the color of destiny. The destiny of darkness or the destiny of light. I guess my destiny is darkness…"

"Listen Shiro, remember what you told me years ago. You told me a person can always change their destiny! Every choice they make effects their destiny! So when there's darkness all around you look for the inner light!"

"Those lessons seemed to have paid off…"

"I guess…"

"Thanks for the talk, and it seems to me that we have a group of eavesdroppers…"

_Busted!_ thought the gang.

"We know you'll are there! Come out already." said Shiro.

The gang slowly came out of the bushes, all of them except Zeero. _Think tree, I'm a tree!_ thought the fox holding up two tree branches.

"Cut that out Zeero, you're not fooling anyone." said Shiro.

"Who's Zeero? I'm a tree," replied Zeero.

Shiro knocked Zeero on the head to get some sense into his brain.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Shiro opened the door to the temple. He had told the group that he needed to be alone so that he could remember his mother in peace. The room was full of memories, but most of them were the ones when his mother had died in this very room. He let out a sigh, then, something wasn't right. He turned around to face the shadows, an old man stepped out of them.

"You must be Shiro, right?" he asked.

"Yeah…"

"Since I remembered you are then maybe you know who I am."

"…"

"Oh yes, you haven't seen me in this form!"

Slowly the old man transformed into…

"You again! What are you doing here Kemuri!?" shouted Shiro.

"To get what I came for!"

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"Shiro has been gone for a while, maybe we should go check on him…" said Tea.

"I go," volunteered Yugi. He climbed up the stairs and slid open the door.

"Yugi! Run!" shouted Shiro who was tied upside down at the moment.

"Huh?!" Yugi looked up and jumped out of the way before Kemuri managed to get a hold of him.

"Get out of here!" yelled Shiro.

"What the?!" said Daichi when he heard the commotion. The gang rushed up to see what was going on.

"The fun's just beginning!" cackled Kemuri.

===============================================================

Next Time on Heart of a Demon- Daichi here, well Kemuri is a friendly fighter, being half spider demon and half wind demon he's going to be hard to beat! He works for the Demon Queen and she's offered him Planet Earth if he can capture Shiro for her. What's the deal with the thing he calls the Gateway To Destruction anyways? Next time: Chapter 13- The Gateway to Destruction. See ya soon!

===============================================================

A.S- I'm done! Hope you enjoy it! Click on my name to read my other fanfics!

Shiro- Please R&R!


	13. The Gateway to Destruction

A.S- It's hard to keep up with fanfics and school work at the same time!

===============================================================

Chapter 13- The Gateway to Destruction

"Look out!" shouted Shiro. Daichi just barely managed to jump out of Kemuri's blade. The blade struck the ground and it was only one inch from Daichi's head!

"Hey! Watch it!" yelled Daichi.

"As a priest you're pathetic, maybe you should take up basket weaving!" taunted Kemuri.

"We'll see who's pathetic!" said Daichi pulling out his staff. While he was taking on Kemuri Zeero snuck around to Shiro, who wasn't very happy about being hung upside down.

"Shiro! You're floating!" said Zeero wagging all three of his tails (he's in his fox form now).

"Zeero, get me down!"

"No problem!" Zeero snapped and the wires and, well…

"I don't know whether to thank you or to hurt you…" growled Shiro grabbing Zeero by the neck.

"I would like to be thanked…heh, heh…"

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"Do you give up yet?" asked Kemuri. Daichi held up his staff to block Kemuri's sword from slicing him in half.

"Not a chance!"

"Have it your way then…" said Kemuri. He swung his blade out and knocked Daichi's staff out of his hand. "Now to end this!" Kemuri lifted his blade…

"Chaos Claw!" shouted Shiro extending four claws and slashing Kemuri's blade out of his hand. The sword clattered on the floor and Kemuri's eyes meet Shiro's. "Why don't you take a hike already!? What is it that you what?!"

"I want to open the gateway to destruction, also known as the end of the world!"

"What?!"

"You see, there's a place that can be accessed from earth known as the Shadow Realm. In it there is a gateway to the end of the world! Beyond that gate lies immense power, more power than you can ever imagine! But of course the only thing stronger than that power is the Forbidden Trinity, but that power is one that I'll never achieve."

"Why's that?"

"It's for my mistress, if anyone unworthy tried to summon the Forbidden Trinity their soul sphere would be cracked and their existence will be wiped out for all eternity! So my mistress is the only one capable of achieving that power!"

"Think again! If anyone's going to summon the Forbidden Trinity it's going to be me!"

"It doesn't matter to me who summons the Forbidden Trinity, as long as I can open that gate it is all that matters!"

"Daichi, what is the Shadow Realm anyways?" asked Shiro turning to Daichi.

"What?! How am I suppose to know!? Your mother was the head priestess! Didn't she tell you anything about that place?!"

"Well she didn't tell me everything there was to know about Earth!" Shiro turned his attention back to Kemuri.

/Yami, have you ever heard about this gateway?/

//Yes, but that was only a legend… It was said that the gate is the key to ending the planet as we know it, it was also said that the powers within the gates would answer only to the one who releases it's powers. But like I said, that was only a legend…//

/How do you get to that gate anyways?/

//Well, many have tried to go through a portal that was said to lead the way to the gate, but none have returned…//

/That's comforting…/

"How do you plan to get to this 'Shadow Realm' anyways?!" asked Shiro.

"Simple, since the only way to get there is through earth, luckily the portal to Earth has been unsealed so it's no problem to get to Earth! The only thing I need now is one of those Millennium Items to get into the Shadow Realm."

"Aren't those the seven items of the Ancient Egyptians?!" asked Hoshi.

"How do you know about the Millennium Items?" asked Yugi.

"My father was one of Earth's protectors so he knows a lot about the powers the Ancients had."

"Enough talk! I've waited long enough to get a chance to enter the gates! Now I shall take that puzzle from you!" Kemuri transformed into a dark cloud and flew straight for Yugi.

"No you don't!" yelled Shiro extending his claws, he sliced at Kemuri, but his attack had no effect! Kemuri just pulled himself back together, literally! "Huh?"

"Soul Stealer!" Zeero leaped at the cloud, but even the fox demon's special attack had no effect!

"Evil be gone!" Daichi threw a talisman at the cloud, it formed a shield blocking the demon from passing, for the moment.

"Nice try!" yelled Kemuri, the talisman and the shield both cracked! Yami switched out with Yugi and held out his hand.

"Mind Crush!" Kemuri didn't even stop for a second he flew right through Yami and out of the temple doors.

"We can't let him escape! There's no telling what he'll do to the village!" said Shiro. The gang ran outside the temple, but Kemuri was nowhere in sight. Yami separated from Yugi and looked around the area.

"Looks like he got away…" said Daichi.

"I wouldn't count on it, it's not like a demon to run away when they have nearly won the battle…" said Shiro. He closed his eyes and relaxed, for several minutes he let the wind blow against him, then the amber eyes opened to alert. "Up there!" Kemuri was up on top of the temple smirking down at them. "Come down and fight!"

"Yokuryu!" called out Kemuri. Then a pterodactyl demon dropped out from the sky and flew down low across the ground. The frightened villager panicked and ran every direction, separating the group. During the confusion the demon managed to swoop down low enough and used its claws to grab Yugi.

"Yami!" he cried out. The gang tried to get to him, but the crowd of villager prevented them from reaching him in time.

"If you want him, come and get him!" laughed Kemuri. Dark clouds covered the village the then both demons and Yugi vanished into the shadows.

"Yugi!" called out Yami. The clouds parted and there was no sign of them.

"If I know my demons well then I'd say they'll head for the Hokusei Island." said Hoshi.

"Why?" asked Katana.

"That's the weakest point between Sonraku and Earth, if Kemuri wants to get to earth and open the Shadow Realm then he'll go there. I'm sure of it!"

"Then what are we waiting for?" asked Joey. "Let's go!"

"We can't…" said Daichi.

"Why not?" asked Tristan.

"Only demon powers are able to work in that area," said Shiro. "So summonings cannot be done there…"

"That's not very comforting…"

While the gang was trying to figure out what to do next Shiro started to walk away.

"Hey, where to you think you're going?!" asked Daichi.

"Hokusei Island."

"You're crazy! You need to recover first after that last battle!"

"I'm not going to leave that kid there."

"I guess there's no stopping you, I'll go too…" said Katana.

"If Katana's going I'm going!" said Akio. Hoshi nodded.

"You can count us in." said Yami.

"Alright Shiro, you win." sighed Daichi. Zeero was sneaking off towards to SAKE bar and Katana got a nice grip on his shirt collar.

"You're coming too!" said Katana. Zeero waved good-bye to the bar as Katana dragged him off towards the Hokusei Island.

'Watch out Kemuri, you're not getting away from me this time' thought Shiro.

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Next Time on Heart of a Demon: This is Yami, next time on Heart of a Demon Shiro and Zeero (being the only one with demon's blood on our team) face off against Kemuri and Yokuryu. Shiro's going to have a lot of trouble beating Kemuri though, Kemuri's special ability is to transform into a tornado and the winds making up the tornado can slice through nearly everything! I hope Shiro can find his weak spot before the Gate of Destruction get opened. Next Time: Chapter 14- The Battle Against the Wind. See you soon.

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A.S- I'm finished!

Shiro- Please R&R!


	14. Battle Against the Winds

A.S- Hope you all liked the last chapter! Here's Chapter 14!

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Chapter 14- Battle Against the Winds

"The gate to earth has been closed… for now," said Kemuri looking at a strange door. He turned his attention to Yugi, who lay unconscious on the ground. Yokuryu was screeching with impatience. "Patience Yokuryu, I promise I'll let you terrorize the humans on Earth before I put my plan into action."

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"Welcome to the Hokusei Island," said Shiro. The island looked like a tornado had run smack through it. Trees were uprooted, bushes were thrown everywhere, and the webs in the area made one have a good reason to fear spiders. "Kemuri has been here, I'm sure of it."

"It sure smells like him," muttered Zeero sniffing the air.

"Ready for battle Zeero?"

"What?"

"You and I are the only ones who can fight on this island, so you're going to help me take down Kemuri and Yokuryu."

"But, but…"

"Even if you don't want to fight you don't really have a choice, you're the only full demon around anyways, so I'll need your help here more than anywhere else."

"…Alright…Can I have some SAKE afterwards?"

"We'll see…"

"But, that usually means no!"

"Exactly!" Shiro turned and continued to walk down the path with Zeero sulking behind him and the rest of the gang behind them.

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"About time…" said Kemuri, the door had begun to glow an eerie amber color. "Look Yokuryu, the door is about to open. The Gateway to Destruction will soon be opened…" Kemuri took a step towards to door.

"Chaos Claw!" shouted Shiro as he slashed Kemuri's arm. He seemed to have appeared out of nowhere.

"Where'd you crawl out from?!" asked Kemuri.

"Wouldn't you like to know!"

"Yokuryu!" Yokuryu flew straight for Shiro when a flash of light knocked him over. The flash of light happened to be Zeero, now it was a claw/fang fight between the two demons. "Delays, delays…" Kemuri headed for the door, then Shiro stepped in front of him.

"Hey! You're not going anywhere Kemuri! If you want to get to Earth you'll have to face me first!"

"Very well then, prepare to meet your doom half-breed!" Kemuri shot out a few more spider webs at Shiro, but these webs weren't like Yari's. These were like sharp blades and some of them shot ice down with them!

"You'll have to do better than that! Chaotic Blaze!" Shiro's blaze managed to mow down a few of the webs, but Kemuri just kept them coming. Shiro figured to dodge the webs and head for Kemuri. "Chaos Claw!" Shiro had just succeeded in amputating Kemuri's right arm.

"Hmm, not bad… But wait till you see the ultimate attack!" Kemuri's remaining arm was held up into the air and then wind came down into his palm.

"What the hell?" said Shiro.

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Meanwhile Yami and the others got to Yugi and pulled him away from the battle. Yugi was still unconscious though and all the gang could do was sit there, hid, and look at the battle.

"What the… what is that guy up to?" asked Joey. The wind in Kemuri's hand began to change into a funnel shape.

"This doesn't look good…" said Mai.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"What do you think you're doing?!" asked Shiro. The tunnel of wind was about the average tornado size now!

"I'm simply making sure you die the most painful way any half-breed can! Now the ultimate death! The Death Cycle!" The tunnel of wind separated into 3 other smaller tornadoes and one huge tornado that surrounded Kemuri. One of the tornadoes flew straight for Shiro, he braced himself but the winds knocked him over and he fell into a heap.

"Devastating Claws!" shouted Zeero, forgetting about Yokuryu and heading for the main funnel. His claws glowed a bright blue and black color and he jumped for the tunnel. The attack would have normally killed off many stubborn enemies, but the tornado blew him away as if he was a fly! After doing several summersaults in the air Zeero finally landed, only he landed on Akio.

"Get off of me!" shouted the elf. With that he chunked Zeero into the air, again! After doing a few more airborne summersaults Zeero had a head-on-head collision (literally) with Yokuryu. The two demons landed in a pile on the other side of bushes, both of their faces looked like this @_@..

"He's the luckiest guy I know," said Seto (sweat-dropping). "What are the chances of that?"

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Meanwhile Shiro was trying to figure out how to penetrate the tornado's power, every time he tried to get near it or charge at it the thing always blew him away! _I need to get past that thing! Kemuri's the thing's energy source so if I get rid of Kemuri I can get rid of these cyclones!_ he thought.

"No for your death!" shouted Kemuri, the four funnels fused into one gigantic funnel and began cutting through the scenery towards Shiro.

"Shiro! Get out of the way!" shouted Katana. Shiro didn't move a muscle.

"You're going to get sliced into pieces!" yelled Daichi, Shiro extended his claws.

"Shiro!" cried Akio pulling the unconscious Zeero to a somewhat standing position. Shiro just stood there as the big funnel of death came roaring his way. Just as the tornado was about to hit Shiro he put his arms in front of him to guard against the wind. The tornado engulfed him, but he stood his ground. The winds acted like sharp blades and they cut Shiro, but he still remained standing.

_What's this!? How can this half-breed withstand my Death Cycle?!_ though Kemuri. Shiro's claws began to glow a golden color, he was charging up for an attack. Then the eye of the tornado (where Kemuri was) came where Shiro was, he put his hands out of the guard position and finished charging up.

"Chaos Claw!" 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

After a blinding flash of light the gang looked at the funnel, the winds died down and there was Shiro and his claws striking Kemuri straight through the heart. The slowly Kemuri's body vaporized with the wind and became nothing more than dust. Shiro sighed and collapsed on the ground. Then the doorway crumbled into thousands of tiny pieces and vanished!

"Shiro!" cried Katana. The gang raced to where he fell, he was still conscious, but he was extremely tired (who wouldn't be after that)! Daichi helped him stand upright.

"You're the craziest guy I've ever meet!" announced Daichi. "You could have been killed!"

"Well, I wasn't." They began to walk away when a shadow blocked there path. It was another demon, this one was different. He looked like a human, but his eyes were those of a demon. His red eyes surveyed the tired group and his jet black hair blew carelessly in the wind. The gang's only two demons were unable to fight so they couldn't afford another battle.

"So, you've won… Congratulations…" said the mystery demon in a bored tone. "You've proven yourself a powerful force, but you still haven't achieved your full potential, Shiro. This makes you an easy target… Kemuri was one of our weaker demons, but his loyalty made him one of the queen's favorites… I could have beaten him with a single blow." He drew out a sharp blade. "I was hoping to fight you, but since your tired now it wouldn't be much fun…So watch yourself…if anyone's going to kill you it will be me!" He sheathed his sword and disappeared into the shadows.

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Next Time on Heart of a Demon: Hi! This is Katana. Well after being beaten up by Kemuri, Shiro and Zeero need a lot of time to recover. There's this other demon who would do almost anything to get into a fight with Shiro, but at the same time helps him out by improving his techniques! Later the Demon Queen manages to trap us in a coliseum and in order for us to leave Shiro has to fight a demon named, Tsurugi. Wonder who his is… Next Time: Chapter 15- The Sword Demon Tsurugi/ Trapped In The Coliseum of Death! See ya next time!

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A.S- Finished!

Zeero- (pant, pant) can we take a break?!

A.S- Not now!

Zeero- (faints)

Shiro- Please R&R!


	15. The Sword Demon Tsurugi Trapped In The C...

A.S- I'm tired! Thanks for the reviews! I'll try to get Akurei Shinzo up and finish this 

story as well!

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Chapter 15- The Sword Demon Tsurugi/ Trapped In The Coliseum of Death!

"Aren't you worried!?" asked Katana. She screamed at Shiro who was sitting calmly on the bed. He had a lot of bandages on him because of his last fight, after nearly being ripped to shreds by a tornado he wasn't going to recover any time soon. "There's another demon out to kill you and all you can say is so what!?"

"Yeah…"

"Argh! You're impossible!" Shiro shrugged, got up, and walked away. Katana glared the angry glare at him causing Zeero (in his fox form) to cower behind Yugi. "I just don't get him! Humph! I sometimes wish I could be as calm as him…But still why would that demon want to kill him so badly…"

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Shiro walked a few feet away from the building, Daichi had left earlier because of some business with the village. He sighed, it would be a long time before he could see his friend again… Then he heard rustling in the bushes, he turned and saw the mystery demon.

"They'll keep hunting you, no matter what…" he said.

"What?" asked Shiro. The demon pointed behind him, there was a pile of demons lying dead in the bushes.

"They were about to take advantage of your current condition. With you battered up like that there's no way you could have won…"

"Who are you? And what do you want?!"

"My name is none of your business, but I'm not working for the queen. I'm just a drifter you can say…"

"Why do you want to kill me so badly then?!"

"No reason, but all I really want is a good fight… You've defeated a lot of demons half-breed, but you haven't felt the true power of a demon. So there's no way you can find your true potential by fighting those weaklings! If I'm going to fight you I want the strongest opponent I can get!"

"Are you calling me weak!?" He took a swipe at him, but missed.

"See what I mean, you can't even reach me… So what hope do you have of beating other demons, let alone summon the Forbidden Trinity? You need to focus on your target, but how can you do that when you're always protecting someone else!? Those humans aren't worth your time, although I must admit the one with the puzzle could be very valuable. After all he is the key to opening the Gateway to Destruction…"

"Keep your hands off of them!" He took another swipe at him, but the demon simply dodged it again.

"Your still not at your full potential yet! How do you expect to win!?" The demon grabbed Shiro's arms behind him preventing him from using his claws.

"We'll see about that!" Shiro flipped the demon over managing to get him off. The demon landed on his feet and smirked at Shiro.

"Very good, you're better than I thought…But remember, You're going to die by my hands!" With that the demon jumped into the trees and disappeared again.

"Wonder what he's up to…" said Shiro to himself.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The mystery demon was sitting on the roof watching the group from the shadows, his attention was then drawn to the shadows when he heard movement.

"So there you are, Tsurugi," out of the shadows can Kuro (he's from chapter 4). "I need your expertise on this assignment…"

"If you want me to get that half-breed for you forget it! The reason I want him to die is because then the Forbidden Trinity won't be summoned!"

"So you already know…"

"Why else would you want a half-breed? If the Forbidden Trinity is summoned then that means this world could be completely covered in darkness!"

"So…"

"…"

"Here's a deal, if you can kill Shiro then we promise not to summon the Three… But fail, then the half-breed will be our key to summon the Forbidden Trinity!"

"What are you up to…"

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"Shiro? What's up?" asked Zeero. "You seem to be distracted lately…" Zeero eyed the half-demon with interest, it's not like his best friend to be sulking.

"Huh? Oh…it's nothing…"

"I don't believe you!"

"Why not?" Before Zeero could answer that question there was a loud explosion at the village inn. "What was that?!" The two raced back towards the area.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"What happened?" asked Shiro. The town was sliced in half, literally! It looked like someone with a huge blade had cut through the scenery. Then Shiro heard a muffled cry under a pile of wood. He and Zeero lifted the junk and out crawled Yami and Yugi.

"Are you two okay?" asked Zeero helping them up.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"Ambushed!?" exclaimed Shiro. Yugi nodded.

"That demon we meet after you defeated Kemuri attacked us. The others got captured by this other demon that was with him, I think his name was Kuro…" Yugi noticed that when he said the name Kuro Shiro dug his fingers into this palms drawing out blood.

"Where are they?" asked Zeero.

"They said something about the Coliseum of Death…"

Kazuo

"No way!" screamed Zeero hugging onto a tree.

"Come on Zeero! We have to get them out of there!" yelled Shiro pulling at the fox's tail trying to get him off the tree at to the coliseum.

"You've never heard of it's reputation though! Only one demon comes out a live after the battle! Even after you beat the enemy they'll still kill one of us!"

"So what do you plan to do!?"

"Good luck cause you're going to need it!" With that the fox zoomed out of sight. Shiro and Yugi stared at the dust cloud the demon made when he ran away.

"Argh! That fox's a coward I'll admit, but I didn't think he would do that!" The doors to the coliseum opened and the two walked inside. Inside there were tons of demons in the stands, several threw dark glares at Shiro.

"Yugi, go see if you can find the others."

"What about you?"

"I'm going to take that invitation to fight that demon, Tsurugi."

"You can't be serious!"

"Why not? Besides, it'll buy you some time. See ya!"

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"So you've come…" said the hooded figure. Shiro was in the arena and the battle was about to start. "I thought you'd be to scared to show up."

"We'll see who's scared! What's with the hood?" The figure pulled off his hood and… "It's you!" It was the demon that threatened to kill him earlier.

"Yes, now let's get this battle started!"

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Yugi was wondering around the maze of the coliseum when he heard a crash, hiding behind the door he listened to the sounds coming from behind the wall. It seemed that someone or something was beating something else up! Then a demon got thrown out of the doorway and there stood Katana brushing herself off.

"That's what you get for messing with me! Huh? Yugi, what are you doing here?" said Katana. The rest of the gang came out of the cell and join them. Yugi told them about the battle Shiro was now in and…

"He what?!" shouted Akio.

"Is he crazy!? He doesn't stand a chance against a sword demon! Hardly any cat demons can stand a chance against a demon like that!"

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Tsurugi and Shiro's weapons clashed against each other, neither one of them seem to give in. Then Tsurugi managed to overpower Shiro, not only that, he split his blade into several different blades!

"Let's see you avoid this!" shouted Tsurugi. The blade shot towards Shiro who desperately tried to dodge all of them, but several pierce him on his shoulders. He collapsed on the ground. "Pathetic, although you've held on longer than most other demons I've fought you're not much better than them."

The gang managed to get onto a balcony and saw Shiro in the arena. Tsurugi wasn't even giving him a chance to fight back! It was assault after assault!

"Shiro!" cried Katana. Shiro and Tsurugi's attention were drawn away for a while, but then their minds returned to the battle.

"You see Shiro, what good are your friends? All they can do now is watch your final breath!" Tsurugi raised his blade and…

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A.S- I'm leaving you all on a cliffhanger now! I'm so evil!


	16. Friendship’s Bonds

A.S- Alright everyone! Thanks for the reviews (although you gave me so little)! Here's the next chapter!

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Chapter 16- Friendship's Bonds

Tsurugi raised his blade and… before the sword was brought down something made the wall of the arena explode. Tsurugi stared at the area a while before turning his attention back to Shiro.

"Farewell half-breed!" Before the blade struck a flash of blue light mowed Tsurugi down. As soon as Shiro could see through the clouds of dust he saw a familiar three-tailed fox!

"Zeero?!" called Shiro. The kitsune gave a howl and returned his attention to Tsurugi.

"Where'd this thing crawl out from!?" Zeero's claws began to glow a dark blue, and he charged straight for Tsurugi. Tsurugi tried to block him by using his sword, but when Zeero's claws touched the metal it broke the sword into many pieces. Zeero was way to fast for Tsurugi to keep up with, so it seemed Zeero hand the upper hand. "That does it!" With a blinding flash of light he transformed into his demon form. His eyes were still the same crimson color, his hair was jet black and was spiked, his armor had blades coming from the shoulders.

As soon as Zeero saw this transformation he gave a yelp and fled through the hole that he made earlier in the wall. Tsurugi followed the kitsune followed by the crowd of demons. The gang came down and Akio helped Shiro stand up.

"You okay?" asked Akio.

"Yeah,"

"What made you think you could go against that kind of demon?!" asked Katana.

"The only reason I got beaten up was that I wasn't fighting at my full power," said Shiro calmly. "I knew a certain fox would be coming back, so I can't have all the fun."

"What?!" screamed everyone except Shiro.

"Why are you all surprised?" asked Shiro.

"What would you have done if Zeero hadn't shown up then!?" screamed Mai.

"I don't know… get chopped into pieces I suppose…" (Everyone but Shiro falls over anime-style).

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Zeero (still in demon form) maneuvered his way around the battle terrain with ease while Tsurugi stumbled along the rocks and obstacles. Fox demons can easily get around such obstacles in a battle terrain, so this gives them an advantage over most other demons.

When Zeero got to a plateau he looked around his surroundings, no sign of Tsurugi. Then the ground below him shook, Tsurugi and tunneled under him. Zeero jumped out of the way and faced the enemy. Then the two demons charged at each other colliding in a flash of blue and black light. The gang got out of the coliseum in time to see this flash. Then Zeero flew out of the light and reverted back into his half-demon form, decreasing his power.

"This doesn't look good…" said Katana.

"Obviously you're underestimating Zeero," said Shiro.

"What do you mean?" asked Mai.

"What can a little coward like him do?" questioned Kaiba.

"You haven't see him when he actually puts his mind in the battle. Fox demons have a great reputation as fighters. Zeero just hasn't paid enough attention in battle to fight well," answered Shiro.

Zeero landed in a heap on the ground. He groaned and looked up to see Tsurugi standing over him about to bring his sword down. Zeero gave a yelp and tried to run away, but then he realized that there was a cliff blocking his escape.

"Uh oh…" mumbled Zeero (sweat dropping).

"Looks like you're out of ideas!" said Tsurugi. Tsurugi charges at Zeero with his blade and… "What!?" Zeero not only managed to dodge the attack, but he also succeeded in knocking Tsurugi off balance with a dark whip of black energy he managed to form in his hand.

"Wow! This is the first time I've ever summoned the Dark Whip before! Yeah!" said Zeero obviously very pleased with himself.

"What's so great about that weapon?" asked Yugi.

"The Dark Whip is suppose to be a weapon only used for fox demons, but that's strange…" said Katana.

"What's so strange?" asked Shiro.

"The Dark Whip was only for the leader of the fox demon's and his sons… Zeero can't be one of them!"

"Well, you never know," said Joey.

"I find it very hard to believe," said Shiro. "Why would Zeero be one of the heirs to the fox demon leader? When I first meet him he told me that he was kicked out of his tribe because he drank too much…"

"We can all understand that…" said Tristan.

Meanwhile Zeero and Tsurugi were still facing off against each other. Their eyes never leaving the other. Finally it got so boring Zeero started to yawn.

"Uh, you can attack anytime now…" said the bored kitsune.

"Why you cocky little!"

Tsurugi charged towards to fox, but Zeero used his speed to get away from the attacks.

"Dark Whiplash!"

Zeero's attack missed Tsurugi by a few meters, but it did disconnect the cliff from the rest of the ground.

"Aiee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" yelled Zeero desperately jumping from rock to rock trying to get back on solid ground again. When he was back on solid ground he panted and didn't see Tsurugi anywhere. "Opps! Didn't mean to do that!"

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"I don't believe it!" muttered Tsurugi in a deep crevasse (he had fell into there when Zeero accidentally sliced off the cliff. "How could I have been defeated by that feather-brain of a fox-demon!" Footsteps came his way and he turned around to see Kuro walking towards him.

"I can believe that you've been defeated by that demon, you didn't even realize that you were just a tool!" said Kuro.

"What?!"

"We were just using you to wear down the half-breed so that he'll be easy prey afterwards. But since you lost to that fox-demon you've let them all escape. Now prepare for your punishment!"

Tsurugi's piercing scream rang out in the darkness of the crevasse. Then Kuro jumped out of the darkness and headed towards the temple of skulls that had just come floating down.

"I was hoping you'd come, Kariudo." said Kuro. Kariudo bowed low.

"What have you called me here for?"

"I want you to find the last to remaining gates to Earth. Make sure those kids don't destroy them otherwise there will be no way for us to find the Gateway of Destruction!"

"Of course…"

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Next time on Heart of a Demon: This is Yami, every time we think we know just about everything there is to know about the Sonraku gang they always have a darker secret hidden beneath them. Now we have to find the remaining two doors to Earth and destroy them before those other demons can get their hands on the Gateway of Destruction. But many obstacles lie in our way as we head towards the town where the next door is suppose to be. What's with all the fox demons here anyways? What! They're Zeero's old tribe?! Next time: Chapter 17- The Tournament of Honor. See you soon.

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A.S- What do you think? If I don't get anymore reviews I might as well end this story. So give me reviews!

Zeero- What's the Tournament of Honor anyways?

Shiro- Zeero! You're a fox demon! You should know!

Zeero- So what?!

A.S- You'll learn about it in the next chapter!


	17. The Tournament of Honor

A.S- Must finish fanfic! I'm getting soooooooo tired of this! So much work, yet so few reviews! OH yeah! I don't own Yu-gi-oh! But I own the Akurei-Shinzo characters!

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Chapter 17- The Tournament of Honor

"I forgot why I never wanted to summon that whip… oh well, I'll think of it sooner or later," said Zeero questioning himself about the Darkness Whip. They were all back at Shiro's hometown and Daichi had helped them heal their wounds.

"You're just to lucky Shiro," said Daichi inspecting Shiro's left arm. Yugi just then noticed a long black scar along that arm. It was like the scar his half-brother Kuro had on his face, only Kuro's scar was white not black. But besides the color of the scar it was the same length and looked almost identical.

/What's with that scar?/

//Looks almost like Kuro's//

/Maybe it has something to do with them being related…/

//I don't think so, that scar is no ordinary scar…//

"Hey Shiro," said Yugi. "What's with that scar of yours?"

"Oh this? It was before you all came. I fought Kuro, my half-brother. But when our attacks collided our hatred for each other caused these scars. They will only disappear when our hate for each other is gone. But I can always tell when Kuro is in the neighborhood because my scar begins to hurt…" said Shiro.

"So that scar basically represents your hatred for your brother?" asked Kaiba.

"You can say that…"

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"It turns out that door you destroyed when you fought Kemuri, was one of the three gateways to Earth," said Daichi.

"So we've destroyed a chance to get home!?" screeched Mai.

"Well, sort of… But there are two other gateways and I suggest you get to them and destroy them before demons or evil spirits get to Earth. If they pass through those gates there will be no way to return to your world."

"What do you mean?" asked Tea.

"You see, if more evil beings from our world cross into yours both of our worlds would fuse together like they did in the past. Only, if our worlds are fused together for a week then both of our worlds will blow up because of the balance is disrupted!"

"What?!" screamed Joey and Tristan in shock.

"That isn't good…" said Hoshi.

"So where are these gateways?" asked Akio.

"Beats me," said Daichi. "I'm a priest not a locator!"

"But you can find out," said Shiro. "The village elder should tell you, he may be an old geezer, but he should be able to locate weak points in the dimensions."

"True," said Daichi.

"Can I have some SAKE?" asked Zeero.

"No!" screams Katana whacking him over the head with a mallet.

"We're talking about the fate of two worlds and all you can think of is SAKE?!" asked Kaiba.

"…Yup!" (Everyone does an anime style fait except for Zeero who is quite pleased with himself and smiling)

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"Alright, this is the area where the nearest door is located," said Daichi pointing at an area in a map. "The elder says that this area is inhabited by demons so be on your guard."

"That place looks familiar," said Zeero. "It's like I've been there before…"

"We'll leave tomorrow morning," said Shiro. "For now, let's get some sleep."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"Thanks again for your help Daichi, "said Shiro as the gang was about to head off.

"No problem, anything for an old friend," said Daichi. "Good luck!"

The gang headed towards the mountains, around that area was a forest. Somewhere in there laid the second gateway.

"This place's scent… it's all so familiar…" said Zeero, after walking for several hours Zeero's short-term memory stared to recall this area. "I remember! Oh wait…never mind, slipped my mind again!"

"Would you shut up already! You've said that a thousand times within thirty minutes!" said an annoyed Kaiba.

"For once I would have to agree with Kaiba…" said Yami who came out of the puzzle just in time to see Kaiba beating up Zeero. "Zeero was getting annoying…"

"Shiro! Help!" screamed the kitsune hiding behind him.

"Why is it that I always end up baby-sitting you?" asked Shiro watching Kaiba chase Zeero in circles around him. (sweatdrop)

Just then a whip came down hard on the ground which threw everyone off their feet. When the dust settled they saw a fox demon about an inch or so taller than Zeero with brown hair in a ponytail and his eyes looked exactly like Zeero's. Except this guy's eyes were a lot more serious than Zeero's usual cry-baby/idiotic blank stare. The whip the guy had used against them was the same whip that Zeero had used to beat Tsurugi. (But unlike Zeero the dude knew how to control the whip's power, Zeero hasn't figured out how to summon it again. The only reason he was able to summon it before was that he didn't even try to summon it earlier!)

"Hey I know you!" exclaimed Zeero. The stranger smirked.

"Well of course you know me!" he said.

"Who are you again?" Zeero asked. The stranger collapsed anime-style and got up sweatdropping.

"You baka! I'm your brother, Kenji!" screamed the demon.

"Oh yeah! What are you doing here?" (Everyone else faints anime-style and sweatdrops).

"You out of all fox-demons should know! It's what you've been running away from! The Tournament of Honor! When all of the leader's sons have gained five tails and summoned the whip of darkness they must fight each other to claim the throne!"

"Aiee! That's why I never wanted to summon that whip!"

"Like it or not you're coming with me!" With that kanji grabbed Zeero by the tail and started dragging him away.

"Shiro! Don't let them make me fight! Help!" screamed Zeero, who grabbed Shiro and started to drag him along as well.

"Hey! Let go! Leave me out of your family issues!" shouted Shiro struggling to get out of Zeero's grasp. The rest of the gang sighed and followed them.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"But Dad! Couldn't you make an exception!?" asked Zeero begging his dad to let him drop out of the tournament.

"I don't know…no one has ever asked to be dropped out before…" said the old fox-demon. Zeero's other brothers stared at him in disbelief.

"What's the matter with you?" asked one of them. "It's an honor to fight in this tournament!"

"Well, no one gets SAKE for winning!" (everyone faints anime-style)

"Always about the SAKE…"sight Shiro.

"How'd you get in here?" asked another one of Zeero's brothers.

"He dragged me in," said Shiro pointing towards Zeero who grinned sheepishly.

"Nice place you got here," said Mai who was looking at the tapestry on the wall. The rest of the gang was also in the building that they were in. Zeero's family didn't want to know how the rest of them got in, so they didn't ask. Although they were very confused on how they got pass the security.

"Interesting friends you've made…"muttered one of Zeero's brothers.

"You're the youngest of your family aren't you, Zeero?" asked Joey.

"How'd you know?"

"It's written all over you," said Yami.

"By the way, we're looking for a door. Have you seen any unusual doors or gates that have appeared around here lately?" asked Katana.

"What does it look like?" asked the old kitsune.

Zeero tried to draw a picture of the door Shiro destroyed when he fought Kemuri, but he just drew a circle. Joey drew a square, and Tristan made a triangle.

"Interesting shapes for doors," commented the old fox-demon.

"Out of the way!" shouted Katana as she pushed the boys out of the way and drew a much better picture of what the doorway looked like.

"Well…" Before Zeero's dad could answer the ground began to rumble. They raced outside and found, well, the door growing out of the ground. "Now that you mention it I have seen something like what you've just described. It's right there."

"Let's destroy it," said Akio.

"Wait! How are we going to get back to Earth then?!" asked Tristan.

"We'll throw you all through the last door before we destroy it!" shouted Shiro as he and Zeero raced towards the door. But before they reached it a plant-demon grew out of the ground! It was an eggplant/octopus looking thing. Basically it had the body of an eggplant and the tentacles of an octopus! Zeero made a sharp U-turn and went yelping back and hide behind his father. "Knew we couldn't destroy the door without some resistance! Chaos Claw!"

Shiro took a swing and one of the eight tentacles and slice it off! But it was immediately replaced by another tentacle which had grown in its place! Then the eggplant dug it's roots deep into the ground. The gang watched and the roots dug deeper into the ground, wondering what the vegetable was trying to do. Then the roots came out of the ground and wrapped themselves firmly around Shiro! Before he could even do anything the roots gave him a jolt of electricity! After the shock the thing flung him to a wall of rocks, then the demon smashed the wall making several rocks fall on top of Shiro crushing him beneath!

"Hey, you fruit! That wasn't fair! I summon Flame Swordsman!" shouted Joey.

"Dark Magician!" shouted Yugi/Yami

"Harpy Lady!" Mai

"Blue Eyes White Dragon!" Kaiba (who else?)

Their monsters didn't even get a chance to attack the thing because it's roots had gotten a good hold of them and crushed them!

"Dark Whiplash!" attacked Kenji. The whip was the only thing that seemed to have an effect on the creature for it howled in pain. But it also made it kind of mad… It slowly turned and used its roots once again to capture its prey. In this case it was everyone! Zeero gave a yelp and turned into his fox-form. He managed to dodge all of the roots that tried to grab onto him, but everyone else wasn't as lucky.

"Zeero! Do something!" shouted Yami in frustration as he tried to get out of the plant's grasp.

"Dad, Zeero only has three tails!" shouted Kenji. The old fox opened his eyes and saw his youngest son scampering from here to there trying to find some way to save himself!

"Well I'll be…" he muttered.

"Soul Stealer!" yelled Zeero as he tried to perform his best attack against the weed. The thing, after puffing up like a balloon, opened its mouth and blew out some yellow toxic at Zeero. It must have been some sort of acid since Zeero gave a cry of pain and he reverted back into his demon form. The plant slowly lifted a large tentacle ready to strike, Zeero gritted his teeth ready for the blow…

"Chaotic Oblivion!"

A flash of gold and silver sliced off most of the eggplant's tentacles and roots which freed the others. Zeero turned and saw Shiro, pushing a rock off of him. He looked like he'd seen better days, most of his face was covered in blood.

"I'm not quite dead yet! So don't you forget about me!" shouted Shiro. He stumbled around trying to stand up straight. The plant turned its attention on Shiro, it began to puff up again. Zeero slowly got up to his feet, and then, suddenly, there it was! The Darkness Whip had come to his hand without him even calling it!

"Dark Whiplash!" attacked Zeero. His whip's power wasn't in 100% of his control, but it still managed to split the thing in to. The two sides of the plant fell on top of the door way and crushed it. The whip then vanished, leaving a very tired Zeero behind.

"Zeero," began his father. "I think you have an excuse to not participate in the tournament…"

"Really?!"

"Yes, to be able to summon the Darkness Whip you were suppose to gain five tails. And you only got three (the lowest level for a male fox-demon I might add)."

"Does that mean I can skip the tournament! Yippee!"

"He's a one of a kind fox-demon," said Shiro watching Zeero dancing around happily.

"Yeah," said Yugi. "But it wouldn't hurt if he had and intelligence level as other people…" (He said this because Zeero just ran smack into a tree!)

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Next time on Heart of a Demon: Hey! This is Daichi! Remember me? If you don't go back a few chapters. So anyways while the gang was looking for the final door they run into me again! I'm with this group of priests that our about to worship this…rice bowl? Don't question the Sonraku priests, most of the prayer priests are nuts. Hope the gang can somehow get me out of this mess! See you soon! Next time- The Rice Bowl of the Heavens! Don't ask…

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A.S- Hope you've enjoyed this chapter! Five days to write the thing!

Daichi- You all have to review! Keep the reviews coming and the chapters will keep on coming to!

Shiro- Have a nice spring break!


	18. The Rice Bowl of the Heavens

A.S- This here is kinda a pointless chapter. But this is where the humor is so read it if you want! I don't own Yu-gi-oh!, but I own Akurei Shinzo so once it gets published (or if it gets published) I hope you all will read it!

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Chapter 18- The Rice Bowl of the Heavens!

"Tell me again why we're walking up this mountain," said Joey as the group climbed up a steep slope.

"Daichi asked me to come over to a temple around here to help him out with something," said Shiro. Then a building came into view, it looked like a run down house though. "This is it…"

"It could use some redecorating," commented Mai surveying the scenery.

"Shiro! You've made it!" shouted Daichi running up to them. "Thank God! Now can you do an old friend a big favor?"

"Uh…what kind of favor? (sweatdrop)" asked Shiro.

"You know this is the time of year when the prayer priests come and pray to one of their gods right?"

"Uh… I've heard of it, but…"

"Well, since I'm a warrior type priest I have to be their bodyguard for a week!"

"What's so bad about that?"

"Hello!? Hanging around with old cranky men!?"

"Oh, that part…"

"So you're going to help me get out of here!" shouted Daichi dragging Shiro over to the run down temple.

"Hey! Why me?"

"You're the son of the high priestess Kimiko, so most likely they'll listen to everything you tell them to do!"

"But…I'm a half-demon! Those priest hate anything with demon's blood!"

"Oh well!"

Behind them the rest of the gang shrugged and followed the two. In front of the temple and old robed man, he had so many wrinkles he resembled a bulldog.

"Hey old man!" called Daichi. His answer to that was a cane to the head. "Ow! You didn't have to hit so hard!" Daichi began massaging the spot when the cane had nearly split his head in two.

"Don't call me an old man you nitwit! Who's this?" asked the old priest referring to Shiro and the others.

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"What?!" gasped the old man and several other priests who had joined them. "You're lady Kimiko's son?!" (He pointed at Shiro with his mouth wide open and his eyes bugging out)

"It's not polite to point…"muttered Shiro (not liking the extra attention). One of the priests came towards him and examined him.

"Are these ears real?" he asked. Then he gave both of Shiro's cat ears a huge tug.

"Yyyyyyyyyyyyyyeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeooooooooooooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"You didn't have to pull so hard!" whimpered Shiro holding onto his ears which still hurt a lot.

"Please forgive me! I didn't know the rumors were true!" cowered the priest who had pulled on his ears.

"What rumors?" asked Yugi.

"It was said that lady Kimiko had enveloped with the feared cat-demon, Kage. At first we didn't believe it, though we've heard she had a son…" said another priest.

"What's so bad about a human loving a demon?" asked Tristan. He got a staff on the head.

"You baka!" screamed the bulldog-like priest. "It is forbidden for a human to love any race, but their own (and once in a while a spirit)."

"But we're so glad you're here, Shiro," spoke another priest. He took Shiro by the arm and lead him inside. "You're just in time to see us worship an item from the heavens…"

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"A rice bowl?" asked Shiro sweatdropping. He and the others stared at the porcelain rice bowl which laid on a cushion on top of a table.

"Uh…not to be nosy or anything, but…why are you worshipping a rice bowl?" asked Joey. The priest bashed his cane on him.

"This is not ordinary rice bowl! It is the rice bowl of the Heavens!" said the priest proudly. The priest then noticed the group was staring at him sweatdropping. "Ahem, anyways…Time for dinner!"

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"For crazy old guys…they…sure…know…how to…eat!" said Joey through mouthfuls. Shiro slipped a bowl of rice under the table where Zeero (in fox form) gobbled it down greedily. Since the priests hated full-demons they made Zeero sit under the table and wait for scraps (thank goodness for him that Shiro was around to give him some good food).

"Hey," started Daichi. "Shiro, have you found all of those doors yet?"

"Well, not yet. We only have one left…" said Shiro (still secretly giving Zeero food).

"Well, I'll come with you then! I finally found a way to track down the doors a lot faster! So can I come?!"

"If it's okay with the priests…" said Shiro eyeing the priests carefully with his amber eyes.

"Well…"began the eldest priest. Before he could finish the roof of the temple was sliced off. Shiro, Daichi, Katana, and Akio jumped to their feet. Zeero tried to, but he had forgotten that he was under the table and hit his head. A bunch of raven demons began to assault their victims from the air.

"There's tons of them!" shouted Shiro trying his best to avoid the air strikes.

"Save the rice bowl!" shouted a priest.

"Save the tapestry!" shouted another.

"Save the pottery!" yelled another old man.

"Even when they're under attack they think about saving their junk…"sighed Daichi bringing out his staff.

One of the ravens descended and started to attack Shiro. He did a good job dodging the attacks. Then the raven nearly knocked over a Ming vase, Shiro caught it and put it back onto the self. Just when he turned away a pick of the ceiling fell on broke the thing!

"Why did I even bother…"muttered Shiro. Then the raven lashed out its tail at him. He dodged it and began catching the pottery that fell from the selves. "Here!" he said handing the confused raven the stuff while he sliced another raven in half. "Thanks!" he shouted as he took back the stuff and gave the demon a good kick in the rear.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The battle raged on and on, but more raven-demons appeared and the group was getting tired! They had to continue their fight outside since the priests had to collect their so-called 'items from heaven'.

"Got a plan Shiro?" asked Akio.

"Yup! Buy me enough time to summon the true Chaotic Spirit attack!" he replied.

"How much will it cost?" asked Zeero. He got a mallet to the head, courtesy of Katana.

"The true Chaotic Spirit attack?" asked Yugi.

"It's when Shiro says the entire spell, it is not like the attacks where you just say its name. If you recite the full attack the attack can be up to 1000 times more devastating. The Chaos Claw is Shiro's best attack, but you haven't seen it at its full power!" explained Daichi.

"What? You mean the Chaos Claw could be a lot more powerful than what it already is?" asked Mai.

"Forget about how powerful it can be they're coming back!" shouted Kaiba. The ravens were zeroing in on them.

"Alright Shiro," said Tea. "We'll try to buy you the time you need."

"Thanks.

__

Spirits hear my plea,

Hear my call and answer me…"

"Here they come!" shouted Yami as the ravens realized what Shiro was doing and were heading straight for him.

"_ Fire, Water, Earth, Thunder, Ice, Wind, Metal, Darkness, & Light._

Fuse our powers and shine your unstoppable might!"

"Shiro look out!" shouted Hoshi as a raven came straight at him.

"_ Chaotic Spirit!"_

Shiro extended his claws from his gloves and struck them into the ground. The nine spirits he had called out came in the form of nine dragons. Each of them flew at the ravens and as soon as they touched the ravens the demons melted into ashes!

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"Well, that's that!" said Joey. Shiro tried to get up, but then he had to kneel down.

"Hey Shiro, are you okay?" asked Katana.

"Yeah, just used up a lot of my demon powers…" panted Shiro.

"You nincompoops!" shouted a priest. "Look what you did to our temple!" It was turned to ashes as well.

"Well," said Shiro all of the sudden better. "See ya!" His still figure was replaced by a smoke replica of him.

"Yeah…what he said…"smiled Daichi before he and the others took Shiro's example and ran off, with a parade of angry priest after them.

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Next time on Heart of a Demon: Hey, it's Yugi. In the next town the villagers are having trouble with a metal demon. And none of our tricks seem to work against him. Looks like we finally get to see what the true power of the Chaos Claw is. I just hope Shiro has enough energy to cast it. Next time: The True Power of the Chaos Claw/ The Shining Solider of Death! See you next time!

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A.S- Please review! Five pages of work here!


	19. I'm Sorry

A.S- Okay people, let's get this straight! I'm beginning to think writing this story is a waste of time! No one is really reviewing! So if no one will do their job then I won't do mine! I'll leave you all on a ever evil cliffhanger for a year or more until the reviews start coming!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Akurei-Shinzo does not own Yu-gi-oh! But owns Akurei Shinzo the series which she hopes to get published very soon. Oh yes! The title was too long so I cut it short! Okay, I changed it and the plot!

Zen- Okay, by the request of a very nice reviewer who actually reviews I'm back! Review or die! (waves around gigantic sword). Anyways keep the reviews coming, there's a ever evil cliffhanger coming your way!

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Chapter 19: I'm Sorry…

"(pant, pant) Who knew old guys could run that well?" asked Joey still tired from the running they had to do to get away from the crazy, old priests.

"Those old guys were in pretty good shape, even though they were a bit crazy," panted Tristan.

"I'm just glad to get away from them," said Tea.

"No kidding," agreed Mai.

Suddenly a group of villagers crowded around the street near a shop. They were craning their necks to see what was happening.

"I don't know about you, but I sense trouble," said Daichi.

Shiro nodded his head. "Let's check it out," he said. Then Shiro jumped on a nearby roof to get a better view of what was happening. The others pushed their way though the crowds to see what was going on.

When they got through the crowds they saw a solider beating up on an elderly man.

"Please stop!" cried the old man's daughter. The soldier just pushed her away. "Someone help my father! He's done nothing wrong!" Then the soldier began to beat up the young girl along with anyone that said a word!

"Stop that!" shouted Yugi. The crowd's gaze shifted over to him. "It's not right to beat up innocent people!" The soldier stepped in front of him and unsheathed his sword.

"Time to teach you some manners brat!" said the soldier. Yugi gritted his teeth and closed his eyes for the blow, but it never came. He opened his eyes in time to see Shiro give the bully a one-way trip to the wall.

"You're the one who needs to learn some manners," said Shiro. "I just you're mother didn't give you enough spankings when you were young! If you want to fight someone then I'll be your opponent!"

The soldier slowly got up and licked his blade. (Shiro- sweatdrop 'that was creepy') He glared at Shiro with his crimson eyes, his armor shining in the sun.

"What's your style of fighting?" asked the soldier.

"Eh? Why do you want to know?" asked Shiro.

"I just want to tell you that no matter what style of fighting you use, I can defeat you! I've studied every style know in this world!"

"Really?"

"Yes! So no matter what attack you use I can deflect it!"

Shiro shrugged and he disappeared, or so it seemed. He was suddenly behind the soldier and before the other guy could do anything he got a punch in the face.

"What was that!?" he asked.

"I didn't really study any kind of fighting style. I just use sonic moves to fight most of the times," replied Shiro.

"Sonic moves?! There is no way you could have achieved the technique I could not have!"

"Well, it looks like I have!" Shiro disappeared again, this time the soldier drew his sword ready to slice Shiro apart. "Over here!" The soldier turned to his right and received a mud-ball in the face. He wiped of the mud, growling. Shiro then extended his claws and charged towards the guy, the soldier managed to block a few of Shiro's attacks before Shiro sliced his armor and broke it into tiny pieces.

"Damn! He's a lot faster than other demons! What are you?" asked the soldier. He took another swing at Shiro at for a moment it looked like his blade had sliced him in two, but Shiro just appeared behind him and knocked his lights out. The guy collapsed and Shiro picked up his sword.

"I doubt you need this anymore," he said. He threw the sword into the air and sliced it up into fine metal splinters.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"Wow! Since Shiro saved the villagers from that thug they've been giving us so much food I'm finally stuffed!" said Zeero. He, Joey, and Tristan had new stomachs now, a lot bigger than their old ones.

"That's weird, I thought I heard Zeero say he was stuffed!" said Katana.

"Who wants more roast beef?" asked a waitress.

"ME!" shouted Zeero, Joey, and Tristan. Within two seconds all three of them were fighting over the rest of the food again.

"You know what, I'm not really hungry anymore," said Shiro pushing away the remainder of his meal which was immediately gobbled up by Zeero.

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"Master!" exclaimed a dark figure. "One of our warriors have been killed!" A shadow sat on a chair and stared at the figure.

"Who sealed that warriors fate?"

"A half-breed traveling with a bunch of kids, and elf, a Koneko spirit, and an idiot fox-demon!"

"…Destroy them all!"

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Boom! The gang jumped out of their seats and the building they were in shook like crazy!

"Is this an earthquake?" asked Kaiba.

"No, we're under attack!" said Akio.

The group rushed outside to see more soldiers like the one that Shiro had eliminated earlier.

"What the?" asked Shiro.

Shiro jumped backwards and a spear struck the place where he was just standing. They looked up and saw a man with a helmet on, full body armor, and a crimson cape.

"Are you the one who defied us?" the guy asked Shiro.

"Maybe," replied Shiro.

"Then we'll have to eliminate you!" Hundreds of soldiers came out of the shadows and surrounded the group. Yami came out of the puzzle.

"Your cards won't have any effect on them. Their armor is especially designed to reflect monsters' attacks. I suggest you guys get to safety," said Daichi.

"Alright," said Yugi.

"Attack!" yelled the leader of the metal army. Katana let go of an arrow, her arrow went through at least twenty armors before hitting a wall. Akio and Zeero unsheathed their swords and began the slow process of cutting apart the armors. Hoshi called upon the power of the stars and small meteors rained down on the enemy. Who knows where Shiro ran off to, he always moves too fast for anyone to see if he's up against an army.

While the rest of them were fighting off the rest of the soldiers, Yugi and company watched from behind a stone wall that was about Yami's size. Then they heard a thud of boots behind them. They managed to get out of the way before the guy unleashed a powerful blast that shattered the wall.

"You're the first to go!" he shouted aiming his beam at Yugi, who was frozen to the spot. The beam was unleashed and it was heading straight for him!

"Baka! Get out of the way!" yelled Shiro, pushing Yugi out of the way. The thin line of light went straight through Shiro and he fell to the ground, blood slowly leaking out of him.

"No! Shiro!" cried Yugi. An arrow went straight through the leaders skull, Katana rushed up to Shiro's limp body and lifted him to a sitting position.

"Shiro!" yelled Akio and Zeero still fighting the oncoming soldiers.

"That's it!" yelled Daichi. He pushed the design on his staff and revealed that his staff doubled as a sword. "Take this!" The sword hit the ground and the screams of the enemy filled the night.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"Shiro," whispered Katana. Shiro's blood was slowly staining her hands and onto her outfit, but she didn't care.

"I'll try to heal him," said Hoshi. But when she performed the healing spell nothing worked!

"There must be something wrong with his soul then," said Daichi. "If something's wrong with his soul then healing spells won't work." He chanted something under his breath and Shiro's soul sphere appeared before them. Yugi then noticed a shard of the sphere was missing.

"Isn't there a shard of his soul missing?" asked Yugi. The others looked and he was right. Then, the sphere began to crack, finally it shattered!

"Oh no!" shouted Zeero. When a soul sphere cracks, there is no chance for survival. Shiro's body slowly began to fade.

"No, Shiro don't do this!" cried Katana tears coming out of her eyes. "Don't leave us! Please!" It was no use, he was still fading, Katana held him tightly in her arms. "I won't let you go!"

"I'm sorry," came Shiro's voice, it was very faint. The his body completely evaporated.

"NO!" cried Hoshi.

"Damn!" yelled Zeero hitting the wall.

"It wasn't suppose to end this way…"said Daichi.

"It can't end this way! I still haven't told him I loved him!" cried Katana. The group turned and faced her, bug-eyed. Akio's eyes turned white and he fainted.

"I think he's shocked," said Zeero.

"Well, now he knows for sure that he's lost the fight to win Katana's heart. Even though Shiro was unaware of it," said Hoshi.

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Next time on Heart of a Demon: This is Daichi. Okay, after grieving Shiro's death we continue our journey to find the final gate to Earth. But the funny thing is that when Shiro died I can't sense the last gate anymore. Could Shiro's death have something to do with this? Find out next time! Why do I get the feeling that Shiro's alive, but that's impossible, we all saw his soul shatter!

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A.S- Well what do you think?! Keep the reviews coming and I'll keep the chapters coming.

Zen- You are still an idiot Zeero!

Zeero- Am not!

Zen- Are too!

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Zen- Are too!


	20. Kidnapped! Again

A.S- I'm back. Okay, if you people don't review then I guess I'll just have to live with it! I'm going to finish this because I'm nice, or am I? (evil grin) I don't own Yu-gi-oh! But I own Akurei Shinzo and I hope to get it published!

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Chapter 20: Kidnapped! (Again!)

The rest of the night the group stayed at an abandoned cabin. They didn't say much, but Akio couldn't have said anything if he wanted to anyways (he was still out cold from the shock).

"This was all my fault…"said Yugi.

"No it's not," said Zeero.

"If I had gotten out of the way then Shiro wouldn't have had to make that sacrifice…"

"Don't worry about it," said Daichi. "You can't control things like this so don't be so hard on yourself."

"Shiro would have done that for anyone, not just you," said Hoshi.

"Yeah, the first time I've meet him I was almost dead, but he save me!" said Zeero recalling that moment. "Katana's arrow was slowly killing me, but he pulled it out! I can't really remember how many times he's saved my ass, but he was always there when I needed him."

"The first time I meet him I tried to kill him," said Katana, tears in her eyes.

"Why?" asked Mai.

"Because he had demon's blood within him, and I was a demon huntress so…that's how things work out. But when Kuro almost killed me, Shiro took the blow for me. Till this day I've never truly understood him. Why would he save someone that had tried to kill him?" Silence….

"So what do we do now?" asked Joey.

"I guess we have to take you home," said Akio, who had woken up.

"Okay, so Daichi, where's the final door?" asked Kaiba.

"I don't know, ever since Shiro died…I've…lost track of that gateway. At first I thought it was just because I wasn't concentrating enough, but I think the gate's disappearance has something to do with Shiro's death. I hope not though…"

The sun slowly came out of the horizon, and it's light slowly crawled through the windows of the cabin.

"Well, let's go. If we don't get you all back home soon, then our worlds will be destroyed," said Daichi. So the group went out of the cabin and walked down the path towards…well, they didn't care. They were now lost and time was running out for them to find the final gate.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

In a dark room two figures were talking silently in hush tones, the only source of light in the room was from a gate similar to the ones Shiro had destroyed earlier.

"So, it was him that opened the doors," said one voice.

"Of course, how could we have been so foolish! The one who closes the gates is also the one who opens them!" said another voice.

"At least it is now easier to take the soul we need to open this final portal, but still…one piece of the puzzle is missing…"

"Yes, a Millennium Item to access the Shadow Realm…"

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The group set up camp in a forest, to Zeero's displeasure, they still had memories of Yari the Spider demon attacking them. They all sat around the campfire and said nothing, just stared at the flames. It seemed too quiet…

"I think we should leave…"said Zeero, eyes wide and looking warily in ever direction possible.

"Why?" asked Akio. Just after he asked that question a gigantic spider crawled out from the bushes. It was at least three feet tall!

"That's why!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" screamed Zeero darting behind Yugi. Yami then came out of the puzzle and looked around the area.

"It's not alone," he said. More spiders crawled out of shrubs and trees.

"I hope they're friendly…" muttered Hoshi.

"Whoever heard of a friendly spider-demon?" asked Katana fitting an arrow into her bow. Akio drew his sword, Daichi held his staff, and Zeero (in fox-form) was still cowering behind Yugi. The spiders seemed to be circling around them, rather then have the spiders totally surround them, Akio rushed towards a few of them and sliced them into pieces. But more spiders took their place, no matter how many times Akio had cut the others apart.

"They won't stop coming!" shouted Akio.

"Demons Be Gone!" shouted Daichi throwing several talismans at them. It succeed in blowing several of them up, but then more replaced them! "They just keep on coming!"

"Devastating Arrow!" yelled Katana as she released her arrows. "Oh great, this can't get any worse!"

"I think it did! Look!" exclaimed Hoshi. The sky was filled with raven demons. They black feathers blocked any light from the moon and stars. Now the only source of light was from the campfire.

"I'm afraid of the dark!" yelled Zeero leaping into the air.

"Get off of me!" yelled Tristan. Zeero seemed to have landed on him.

"Why can't we summon any of our monsters?" asked Kaiba through the darkness.

"It seems that there's a source of power that blocks the monsters from the Shadow Realm from coming here!" shouted Daichi, whacking a spider-demon into a pancake.

"Oh great!" complained Joey.

"You can complain later! For now let's just find a way to stop them!" shouted Mai.

"What's that!?" asked Tea pointing towards the sky. A crimson colored bird was circling them from the air.

"Is that an Eagle of Blood?" asked Katana.

"A what?" asked Joey.

"And Eagle of Blood is a rare eagle, but it's a good thing it's rare since it works for anyone that gives them a good meal. And they never failed their missions so far, and those missions were murder!" answered Akio.

The eagle began swooping down about five feet above the ground. They all had to duck so that the eagle's razor sharp claws wouldn't scratch them

"You guys better find a safe place!" shouted Katana trying to bring the eagle down with an arrow. Before they could even move a muscle the eagle swooped down and grabbed Yugi with it's claws and flew away.

"Yugi!" shouted Yami, but before they could go after him smoke filled the area. When it cleared they were alone.

"Why would they take Yugi?" asked Tea.

"I have no idea, but we'd better find him fast!" replied Daichi.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Yugi landed with a thump on the cold, hard stone floor. But he wasn't alone when he looked up…

"Kariudo!" he shouted. The Hunter glared down at the boy and smirked.

"I see you've remembered my name," said the crimson-eyed demon. Yugi had thought that he had perished when he resurrected Saber-Tora, but it looked like he was wrong. Kariudo jerked Yugi up on his feet and began to 'escort' him down the dark hallway. "Hurry up, there's someone who's just **_dying_** to see you…"

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Next Time on Heart of a Demon: Hey everyone, this is Joey. Yami has grown weaker since he had been separated from Yugi, without Yugi's soul nearby he could completely disappear. Meanwhile, Yugi has problems of his own. The final door, our only chance of getting home, is in the hands of the enemy. With the Millennium Puzzle Kariudo wiped out our last chance of heading home! Now that door only leads to the Shadow Realm! Oh crap! Talk about your bad luck! Wait a sec… who's that person in the cell next to Yugi's? And what did Kariudo mean when he said that person's soul was incomplete? What!? You mean if that person's eyes open when his soul's completed the final door opens too?! If that happens then Kariudo can get into the Shadow Realm! The battle for both worlds is coming to an end! But I just have to know who that mystery person is! See you soon! Next Time: A Soul That's Incomplete…

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A.S- Here's another chapter! Please R&R! (cuz if you don't…) Oh! And read my other fic! Click on my user name and select the other fanfic on there! It's called Shadows of Demons! I love demons!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


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